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Falluja residents may never return
 Many residents who fled Iraq's shattered city of Falluja will not return until after the 30 January election, if at all, due to uncertain security and the lack of schools and hospitals, the UN has said.
| Mahmoud! Bring me my femtoviolin! |
About 85,000 residents have entered the city, heavily damaged in a month-long US assault that began in November, to inspect their houses, but only 10 percent of those have decided to stay, the UN's refugee agency UNHCR told a news briefing on Tuesday. "Until the elections take place and until they see what happens, they won't go back because they're scared," spokeswoman Marie-Helene Verney of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told reporters. "It's still pretty recent." Falluja was estimated to have had a population of around 250,000 before the offensive and heavy bombardment, designed to uproot fighters opposed to the presence of foreign troops in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred 2005-01-13 |
