BAGHDAD – The United Nations refugee chief said yesterday that he is sending a representative to Baghdad to help millions of displaced Iraqis return home, showing a strengthened U.N. commitment to deal with the crisis and confidence in recent security gains.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres also pledged to increase his group's staffing level in Baghdad from two to five people.
“We have confidence in the future of Iraq,” Guterres said at a joint news conference with Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Guterres said the new U.N. representative on the refugee crisis “will be in Baghdad and no longer in Amman as it has been the case. We believe it is here that the essential work needs to be done.”
The United Nations and many other aid agencies moved from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, after a couple of devastating attacks, including the truck bombing of the world body's Iraq headquarters in August 2003 that killed 22 people, including the top U.N. envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The UNHCR estimated last week that 2 million Iraqis have fled their war-ravaged country, many to neighboring Syria and Jordan. Another 2.4 million are thought to be displaced from their homes but living inside the country, either because of Saddam Hussein's actions during his rule or because of the war.
Zebari said that, with decreasing violence in many areas of Iraq over the past year, some internally displaced people have been moving back to their neighborhoods.
A recent Interior Ministry assessment found “nearly 4,000 families that have gone back to their homes willingly,” he said.
But Zebari and Guterres agreed that much more needs to be done. The two said they will begin talking about how to assess when conditions are right for a more substantial return of refugees.
“There is never a humanitarian solution to a humanitarian problem,” Guterres cautioned. “The plight of Iraqi refugees will end with national reconciliation and with their effective reintegration in the country and their contribution to the reconstruction of the country.”
Last year, statements from the Iraqi government that the country was secure enough to handle a substantial return of refugees raised concerns from the United Nations and the U.S. military. The United States warned that a massive repatriation could rekindle sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites, and some returnees found their Baghdad homes occupied by members of the other Muslim sect.
