ICC Note: Over the last decade, hundreds of thousands of Christians have left the violence in Baghdad. Many of them left without selling their homes, hoping to one day return. Now, many of them have seen those homes taken by gangs. The courts have shown little assistance in getting the properties recovered and Christians fear that if they press the claims they will simply be putting a target on their back for kidnappings or other forms of violence.
04/04/2014 Iraq (Middle East Online) – As Iraq suffers its worst violence in years, gangs claiming ties to powerful militias have been commandeering empty homes in Baghdad with little official sanction, victims and rights groups say.
Militia leaders have disavowed the practice and insist they are not behind it, while those affected — principally minority Christians — say the country’s courts have done little to protect their property.
“We have received dozens of such cases,” William Warda, head of the Baghdad-based Hammurabi Human Rights Organisation, said.
“Most of them are afraid of submitting complaints to the government, because they do not believe they can protect themselves if they file a lawsuit — they are fearful of being kidnapped.”
Though kidnapping for political or financial motive is not as widespread as it was during the worst of Iraq’s sectarian war in 2006 and 2007, it remains a persistent fear, particularly among minority communities.
Christian families have been disproportionately affected by the home seizures, officials say, for reasons to do with tribal politics and because of the high number who have fled.
Many empty homes that have been taken over were left by Christians who took flight from Iraq, fearful of the near-daily attacks that plague Baghdad and major cities.
A community that once numbered more than one million nationwide, and upwards of 600,000 in Baghdad alone, has since fallen to fewer than 400,000 overall, according to Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako.
Many of those who left did not sell their properties, ostensibly in the hope of returning one day.
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