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Iraq-Jordan
Falluja residents may never return
2005-01-13
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.
Sounds good to me...
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

#13  Sunni will learn the meaning of American colloquial expression "payback's a bitch.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-01-13 7:27:18 PM  

#12  #6 Anonymoose: Fallujah may get more residents, but they all will have to have Iris scans and fingerprints. That should stem the flood of free money applicants.

#8 RWV: Your comments are right on. This a very painful time of change for former Baathists and Sunnis. They have been in the catbird seat for decades and now they are out of power. The price for their maltreatment of Iraqis under Saddam will have to be paid. This will be a very high price, consequently the former Baathists and Sunnis involved in Saddam's behaviors will be shit out of luck for a long time. That is what it really comes down to.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2005-01-13 7:12:42 PM  

#11  http://www.grouchyoldcripple.com/archives/001726.html

I remember when they killed the 4 contractors, one kid stepped on the body and said "This is what will happen to Bush if he comes here." I wish I had that link.

I bet they regret that now.
Posted by: JackassFestival   2005-01-13 4:51:04 PM  

#10  We should do that to a few more sunnite (spelling??) cities, and bar them from returning - how about Mousul, for starters.
Posted by: Glereper Craviter7929   2005-01-13 4:25:43 PM  

#9  Real estate prices should start to decline. Next thing you know the Kurds will start moving in and the whole neighborhood goes to hell.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-01-13 3:21:06 PM  

#8  The fingerprinting and the recording of retinal scans probably scared off a good many of the former inhabitants. They're scared that their role in the earlier Islamofascist activities (with the Baathists and/or with the terrorists) will come to light and they will find out what justice means in the new Iraq.
Posted by: RWV   2005-01-13 3:14:36 PM  

#7  They shouldn't have pissed us off. We warned them. They should also know that on the piss off meter, we were only midly pissed. These slack jawed brain dead Islamofacists who caused this should consider that we have not even begun to approach the phase of: "O.K. no more mister nice guy."

The Marines were just fulfilling their credo...if it has to absolutely be destroyed overnight. Considers the Marines the Fed Ex of the Armed Forces.
Posted by: John Q. Citizen   2005-01-13 10:19:20 AM  

#6  Fallujah will probably get *more* residents then it had before, once the US starts handing out the checks for repairs *and* the central government hands out checks to help them rebuild.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2005-01-13 9:18:09 AM  

#5  I believe the UN sent this lady back in to criticize the US.
Posted by: HV   2005-01-13 8:57:56 AM  

#4  'but only 10 percent of those have decided to stay, the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR told a news briefing on Tuesday

I thought that the UN had pulled out of Iraq? Am I having a senior moment or did they come back when I was busy in BCT?
Posted by: Jame Retief   2005-01-13 8:23:24 AM  

#3  This is actually good, I think. A scattered community cannot effectively support terrorism and insurgency, when there is no midst for the bad guys to be in ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-13 5:54:55 AM  

#2  my thought exactly...scared of what??? Reporters, are they stupid or just drunk?
Posted by: 2b   2005-01-13 2:02:11 AM  

#1  "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.

Scared of what? American reprisal?

If they're afraid of the possibility of another U.S. military assault, they should know by now how to prevent that...
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-01-13 1:56:26 AM  

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