The UN High Commissioner (UNHCR) for Refugees said on Saturday he's sending a representative to Baghdad to help Iraq return its millions of displaced people. The announcement not only shows a strengthened UN commitment to deal with the crisis but also confidence in recent security gains.
Antonio Guterres, the high commissioner, also pledged to increase his group's staffing level in Baghdad from two to five people.
"We are here because we are deeply committed to do more and to better," Guterres said at a joint news conference with Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. "We have confidence in the future of Iraq."
As Guterres made his promises, the top Iraqi commander for Baghdad, Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, said the number of bullet-riddled bodies found daily has dropped from at least 43 to about four under a year-old US-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital.
The statement was tempered by warnings that the battle was not over.
"An end date cannot be set for this security plan because of the kind of battle we are fighting against an enemy represented by insurgency and terrorism," Qanbar said.
Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi said separately that the so-called surge of US troops has helped secure most of Baghdad, but challenges remain from al-Qaeda in the north and what he called "criminals, gangs and smugglers" in the south, where Shiite militias are involved in a violent power struggle.
He said US troops should remain in Iraq until domestic security forces are able to take their place, and the long-term need for US troops will be mostly related to border protection.
"There is 90 percent security in the capital," al-Obeidi told said on the sidelines of a meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Yet deadly violence in the streets of Baghdad remains a daily occurrence.
Two government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, said police found two handcuffed, blindfolded and shot-up bodies showing signs of torture in Baghdad on Saturday. Those killed were apparent victims of so-called sectarian death squads usually run by Shiite militias.
CONTRAST
That was in sharp contrast to the dozens of bodies found on a typical day before Moqtada al-Sadr's ordered his militia fighters to stand down. The six-month ceasefire expires at the end of this month and it remains uncertain whether the radical Shiite cleric will extend it.
Guterres said the new UN 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 UN and many other aid agencies moved from Baghdad to Amman after a couple of devastating attacks, including the truck bombing of the world body's Iraq headquarters in August 2003, which killed 22 people including the top UN envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The UNHCR estimated last week that 2 million Iraqis have fled their war-ravaged country, many to Syria and Jordan.
Another 2.4 million are thought to be displaced from their homes but living inside the country, either because of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's actions during his rule or because of the war.
Zebari said that, with decreasing violence in many areas of the nation 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 he and Guterres agreed that much more needs to be done. The two sides said that 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 said. "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 both the UN and the US military. The US said that a massive repatriation could rekindle sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites and that some returnees found their Baghdad homes occupied by members of the other Muslim sect.
'DECISIVE BATTLE'
In remarks aired on state television late on Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki thanked US-led forces for what he called a "victory in Baghdad" and promised to pursue insurgents who have fled northward after being pushed out of other parts of the country.
Al-Maliki has promised there will be a "decisive battle" in Mosul, the last major urban stronghold of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Hundreds of former troops from Saddam's disbanded army have volunteered to join the Iraqi army ahead of the planned offensive, said Brigadier General Khalid Abdul-Sattar, an Iraqi military spokesman for Ninevah Province, which includes Mosul.
He said 202 former senior officers and 947 noncommissioned officers and 947 former noncommissioned officers and soldiers had submitted their applications so far.
"The Ninevah Province needs them and they will be trained for a short time, perhaps one month," Abdul-Sattar said. "They will fight al-Qaeda in the city of Mosul."
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