Returning Iraqis face lack of services, property disputes

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Returning Iraqis face lack of services, property disputes
By Jamie Gumbrecht | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, January 2, 2008

BAGHDAD — Dr. Ahmed Farid heard it from his family and saw it with his own eyes: his old neighborhood in Baghdad is safer, maybe secure enough to move back from the city of Basra.

Since his family left the capital city in fall 2006, one of the most brutal periods since the war began, he's worked two medical jobs to cover rent and food. His children study in crumbling school buildings with 55 students to one teacher. Basra is close to his wife's family, but violence is boiling and Shiite Muslim power struggles continue.

Still, he won't return to Jihad, his Baghdad neighborhood, just yet. It's the place where he was a target for kidnappers, his daughter woke daily from panicked nightmares and he's not sure he can find a job.

"I think of going back," he said after visiting his old neighborhood during Eid ald Adha celebrations last month. "But I can't guarantee I will find the comfort, security and accommodations I have here."

Farid, like millions of other Iraqis who fled the bombs and ambushes in 2006 and 2007, is choosing between the rising costs of displacement and the painful memories of home. For 2008, those choices will become even more difficult as Iraqi officials work to woo them back to their neighborhoods, whether services and security are ready or not.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/24012.html