WASHINGTON POST: IRAQI GOVERNMENT FAILS IN HELP TO DISPLACED. MILITIAS COME TO RESCUE

Iraqi Militias Offering Aid To Displaced

By Walter PincusWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, April 15, 2008; A12
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402710.html

The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which has provided little financial assistance to the more than 2 million Iraqis who have fled the country's sectarian violence, has also failed to support millions more internally displaced persons who are instead being aided by militias, according to a report by Refugees International due for release today.

"Militias of all denominations are improving their local base of support by providing social services in neighborhoods and towns they control," the report says. It also finds that the Iraqi government, "although it has access to large sums of money," lacks the capacity and political will "to address humanitarian needs."

Some senior Iraqi officials are suspicious of the refugees' political and religious leanings, and question the numbers coming from host governments, according to U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker.

"They are suspicious of the statistics and think they are being inflated by host governments and NGOs so they can get more money from Iraq and the United States," Crocker told Washington Post reporters and editors last week. Crocker also said Iraqi officials have questioned whether all the individuals qualify as refugees, saying that many of those who fled the country for Jordan, Syria and elsewhere "were opposed to the new order."

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