Refugees in their own land: 2m Iraqis forced to flee their homes

A report from Red Crescent says that nearly two million Iraqis have become refugees in the past year, with more than a million people fleeing Baghdad alone.

Last month saw the sharpest rise so far in the numbers of Iraqis forced to abandon their homes - 71.1%.

These figures are in sharp contrast to Petraeus' claim that the American "surge" is making Iraq safer for it's citizens. Were Iraq actually safer then one would not expect residents to be fleeing at such a shocking rate.

The vast internal exile began after the bombing of Shia shrines at Samara in February 2006 ignited Iraq's sectarian war.

Thousands of Shias fled Sunni majority neighbourhoods and headed for the south, where they are in the majority. Sunnis fled Shia enclaves for the north and west of the country. Christians also left their homes in Sunni areas for Kurdistan. Some two million Iraqis left the country.

Now a further wave of migration is under way as Iraqis discover they can not survive in their original havens. Unlike the earlier flights, the current movements are not easily categorised by ethnicity. "Our understanding is that people are just moving to where they feel safer," said Tim Irwin, a spokesman for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees in Washington.

Many of these fleeing families are fleeing for the second time having found no safety in their first location.

And, as always in such situations, there are unforeseen consequences:

"Some teenagers who lost loved ones joined the armed groups and started taking revenge on innocent people from different ethnic groups. Rape, armed gangs, theft, drug addiction was commonplace," it said. "The overall picture is that of a human tragedy unprecedented in Iraq's history."

There is simply no way to measure the tragedy that Bush and the neo-cons have visited upon the people of Iraq.

And the proof that Petraeus is lying when he says ordinary Iraqis are now safer is in the simple fact that ordinary Iraqis are fleeing at an unprecedented rate. People who feel safe don't abandon their homes and run...

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