Displaced people from Salah al-Din are banned from returning

After ten years, Maytham (50 years old), a government employee, still lives far from his home in the Yathrib area in the Balad district (85 km north of Baghdad) after being displaced following the ISIS takeover of the area in June 2014.

The ISIS left nine years ago, but the armed Shiite factions that controlled the area are still preventing thousands of Sunni Arab residents from returning and reclaiming their lands, homes and lives.

Balad, a Shiite-majority area, includes Sunni districts, and is administratively of Salah al-Din Governorate, which includes holy shrines for Shiites in areas surrounded by a Sunni majority, which has made it an arena of sectarian conflict since 2003 and kept tens of thousands of its Sunni residents displaced since the summer of 2014.

Maytham used to live in the Sunni-majority village of al-Shahabi in the Balad, before he and his family were displaced to Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region and settled there, fleeing the ISIS that had taken control of large areas of the governorate within weeks.

Because of his job, he forced to return to the province after it was completely liberated in late 2016, but the Al-Hashd Al-Shabi controlling the area prevented him and thousands of others, so he was forced to live with his family in the Dujail district, also in Salah al-Din province. “I now live ten kilometers away from my home, which I can’t reach, we paying the others bill. We are not terrorists to be punished in this way. Even the few who were allowed to return live in miserable situation without water or electricity.

“The only irrigation canal in the district that used to irrigate our lands was diverted, causing our fields to die, as if they wanted to uproot all our roots there,” he said.

The agricultural district of Yathrib is ​​about 446 km², and its population exceeded 75,000 people before the displacement in 2014, most of whom were Sunni Arabs, belonging to the Al-Izza, Al-Ubaid, and Al-Bu Hashma clans, one of the branches of the Banu Tamim tribe. It also had Shiite residents, belonging to the Al-Bu Fadous Al-Tamimi and Al-Bu Saud clans.

Following ISIS’s control of the district, thousands of families were displaced to other areas, such as Al- Dhuluiya district and neighboring areas that remained safe in the governorate and outside it, away from the control of the organization.

After the war to liberate Yathrib from ISIS had cleared, on December 27, 2014, AL-Hashd, many of whom were from the area, took control of the land. They initially prevented the Sunnis from backing home, accusing them of cooperating with ISIS, which had killed many Shiites and confiscated their property. And they allowed for few only to return after a long negotiations.

A paid return!

Political parties are trying to bridge the gap that the ISIS has put it between the Sunnis and Shiites and are demanding the return of displaced and immigrant families who are not affiliated with the organization, but rather those who fled from it, to their areas.

Some of these demands are described by civil activists and residents of the district as not including practical steps, but rather as propaganda aimed to achieve political goals for their owners in local or parliamentary elections, while others resulted in the return of nearly half of the Sunni population of Yathrib district to their areas.

This was the result of tireless efforts by dozens of Iraqi officials and politicians, mediators, UN representatives, and even faction leaders, who between 2015 and 2018 made visits between tribal leaders trying to reach a comprehensive reconciliation and turn the page on the ISIS era.

In 2015, the former governor of Salah al-Din, Raed al-Jubouri, tried to find a solution to the crisis by allocating four billion Iraqi dinars (almost to 3.36 million dollars) from the governorate’s budget to Shiite victims in the Yathrib district as a settlement and compensation. However, those entitled to it only received part of it, and thus this step was useless. On May 10, 2016, a charter of honor was signed between the various tribes under the auspices of the Salah al-Din Governorate and the supervision of the Iraqi Sunni Endowment, allowing the return of the displaced people of the Yathrib district, with their pledge not to file any lawsuits against the army, the Popular Mobilization Forces, and the Shiite residents of the area for their victims and losses. However, things did not go as planned due to the dissatisfaction of some parties in the Shiite tribes, who did not allow the displaced people to return, relying on the weapons and influence of the Popular Mobilization Forces. In late 2017, another deal was made, as Sunni tribes collected another compensation amount of 4 billion dinars (each Sunni family paid 500 thousand dinars- 380 dollars) to calm the situation, called (al-Ridwa) in exchange for their return to their areas.

According to those familiar with tribal affairs, paying these amounts does not mean “an admission by the person who pays that he is guilty, or that he was involved in committing crimes in cooperation with ISIS against the Shiites in the region,” but rather it is a tribal settlement. As for those involved in belonging to ISIS and committing crimes, lawsuits were filed against them in the courts or they were arrested.

These attempts resulted in the return of 30,000 Sunnis, but many of the returnees found their homes destroyed and their fields burned and they had to start their lives from scratch without any compensatory assistance, while thousands of others remained waiting for security approvals that have not yet come and must be preceded by new settlements.

The numbers about the displaced persons are conflicting, and their numbers are estimated at 15,000 to 30,000, most of them currently live in the Kurdistan Region. Some of them were in displacement camps that the Ministry of Migration and Displacement decided to close completely at the end of July 2024, like “Ashti” camp in Sulaymaniyah, which a total of 935 displaced persons left in the third week of May 2024, some from the Yathrib district, and others from the Balad and Sinjar districts, after each returning family was given 4 million dinars (more than 3,000 dollars), according to Evan Faeq Jabro, Minister of Migration and Displacement.

 The fate of the displaced people from Yathrib district who are unable to return due to the failure to settle their files remains undetermined, especially after local officials and members of the Iraqi parliament representing Salah al-Din province refused to explain the options to them “due to the sensitivity of the case”.

Forbidden areas

The 41st Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces, affiliated with Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, led by Qais al-Khazali, controls the security file in the Yathrib district, and its checkpoints prevent the return of any displaced residents from several areas, including the one known as (Ahbab Tal al-Dhahab), as well as the (11 Kashkriya) which located between Balad and Dujail, in addition to the (channal 34), which most of its orchards that were burned and their owners’ homes were demolished.

Saleh Hassan (59 years old) whose rural home is located in the village of Albu Bahlol, within the forbidden area between the areas of Sunni and Shiite presence in the Yathrib district, says: “When ISIS entered, the people of our village were among the first to be displaced. No one remained in the village at that time. After the liberation, we tried to return to our homes and lands, but we were prevented and were surprised that our orchards were burned.”

Some of the people of Yathrib estimate the forbidden area that Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq prevents Sunnis from entering to be 8,000 dunams, and includes the districts of (11 Kashkriya and Al-Mudawara) and their area is close to 8,000 dunams. Saleh owns 125 dunams located on the borders of the irrigation canal 34 in the district, including 24 dunams planted with citrus fruits. His land used to bring him nearly $50,000 yearly, which he earned from selling citrus crops, wheat and leafy vegetables. He says, fighting back his tears: “But now I work in construction and my son is a sanitation worker!”, He adds “The Shiite tribes diverted the irrigation canal towards their lands and prevented water from reaching ours so our trees died and were burned and our lands became barren, except for those they took over”.

According to Saleh, these tribes have seized 17 dunams of his land and they cultivating it and selling its produce: “My many attempts to reach my land have failed and I have not been able to get even a picture of my demolished house, although I was able to see it from afar at the last checkpoint I could reach.”

After a few moments of silence, he adds: “We are afraid to demand our land so that we are not accused of working with ISIS and persecuted.”

In order to reach his area, he must pay 500,000 dinars for a security permit from the checkpoints. “I do not have this amount, and I have confirmed through my friends who have returned to their homes that the Shiite tribes have seized part of the land that still has water, including part of my land,” he says regretfully.

According to the Yathrib Agriculture, 43,183 dunams of cultivated land in the district were burned and bulldozed out of 63,589 dunums suitable for agriculture, including lands within the prohibited areas that no one can enter, such as 11 Kashkriya, which all of its lands were burned, with an area of ​​4,611 dunums, and 7 Mudwara, which was prohibited from entering and 1,105 dunums of which were burned out of 2,838 dunums.

 All of these burned lands belong to Sunni Arabs, and contained almost five and a half million trees, producing nearly 270,000 tons of various fruits annually. Saleh Hassan accuses members of the Shiite tribes in the area of ​​bulldozing his orchard, and says, “Some of them in Yathrib joined the Popular Mobilization Forces and took control of the area, so they do whatever they want to achieve personal interests, and no one charge them”.

Malicious lawsuits

Mohammed Ali (31 years old) belongs to the Sunni Albu Hshma clan. He lived in the village of Al-Fadous, which has a Shiite majority in Yathrib. He was displaced with his family to Kirkuk in late 2014 after the Popular Mobilization Forces entered the district and expelled ISIS from it. At the time, he was a student at Samarra University.

After the army and the Popular Mobilization Forces regained control “killing operations began against everyone who didn’t leave the village when ISIS entered it in June 2014, in addition to burning orchards that belonging to the Sunnis. If I had not left at that time, I would be dead by now,” says Mohammed.

The young man settled with his family in Kirkuk for about two years, hoping to return to his village as soon as possible. However, a complaint filed by a Shiite woman from the same village in 2017, in addition to another complaint filed by her cousin, which included accusations of carrying out a terrorist act in the village, prevented him from completing his studies as he had hoped at Kirkuk University, where he had moved, in addition to ruling out his return to his area.

 He says with sorrow: “That woman was a neighbor of my family for more than 50 years, even before I was born, but members of ISIS killed her son, so she now sees all Sunnis as ISIS members. She filed a complaint against 15 of my relatives, including my father and grandfather, and each of us paid her $5,000, but the problem was not solved”.

After that, Muhammad and his family headed to Sulaymaniyah, and in 2021 he try with the complainant woman to close the file, and according to him, they reached an agreement to pay an amount of $15,000 to drop her complaint.

The woman and her cousin actually dropped it, but that did not change anything, as Muhammad discovered that there was another lawsuit filed against his family by another person belonging to the same Albu Fadous clan, accusing them of joining ISIS.

Muhammad now works as a construction worker “without a clear future,” and he still paying off the debts he owes caused by the lawsuits that he describes as malicious. He says: “We borrowed the money we paid as compensation, and I am still paying it off. My father and I are still wanted and we fear standing before the court and being absent without return. As for my grandfather, he died months ago without being able to bury him in the family cemetery in Salah al-Din due to the malicious lawsuits.”

 A lawyer at the Salah al-Din Court, who preferred not to be named, said that there are almost 700 lawsuits filed by complainants against members of Sunni families which include charges of belonging to ISIS or carrying out terrorist operations. He said: “Some of the lists include similar charges against 500 people at once.” He added: “The factions that took control of the intelligence services in southern Salah al-Din after the departure of ISIS used the charge of terrorism to describe the cleansing of specific Sunni areas of their entire population, and many do not dare to appear before the investigation offices for fear of torture, disappearance, or being accused”.

Unofficial sources indicate that there are more than 2,800 people from Salah al-Din who have been forcibly disappeared since the liberation of their areas from ISIS, some of them from the Yathrib district, and that many of them were arrested by the Popular Mobilization Forces and their families no longer know anything about their fates.

The same thing happened in the Jurf al-Sakhr district (70 km south of Baghdad), which is part of Babil Governorate and is located north of the holy city of Karbala for the Shiites, and which Sunni leaders have been promising its original residents for years to return to without this happening, after it turned into a base for Shiite armed groups that accused its Sunni residents of committing murders against Shiites and supporting terrorist and covering up their movements throughout the years of sectarian war.

The return of the residents of those areas and the approval of a general amnesty law were among the provisions of the political agreement under which the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was formed in October 2022, but it has not been implemented yet.

Sunni areas to Shiite

Just as the armed factions in “Jurf al-Sakhar” are accused of preventing residents from returning to it in order to change the demographic of the erea that involves removing Sunni Arabs from the vicinity of Karbala and Najaf governorates, the same thing is happening in some areas of Salah al-Din governorate.

A lawyer says that attempts are being made to Shiiteize several areas in Salah al-Din in order to extend their influence: “The Shiite political forces control several areas such as Samarra, Yathrib and Dujail and have recruited armed factions and pushed some Shiite tribes in Yathrib”.

Reducing Loss

Politician Abdul Aziz Al-Maamari also believes that “the armed factions that have lost their popular base in the south of Iraq in the last few years are trying to control the Sunni region to compensate for that.”

He believes that there are submissive Sunni parties ready to weaken Sunni representation for personal benefits, which has changed the nature of political and social formations in the province

Return to the unknown

The government of Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani set July 30, 2024 as the date for closing all camps for the displaced wherever they are, and called the project “voluntary return.” However, “Ahmed. A.” (29 years old), who lives in Ashti camp in Sulaymaniyah with his family, sees it as a “forced return.”

He says: “Kurdistan stopped granting us housing permits outside the camps after the decision to close the camps, which will force us to return to our areas that we can’t reach in the first place.”

Ahmed used to live in a village overlooking the canal 34, which is one of the the forbidden villages, and despite the fact that His father owns a 20-dunum orchard there that was planted with grapes, but he cannot reach it. “Where will we go now? It is a displacement process, not a voluntary return, let them give us back our lands so we can return to it. With this decision, we have no choice but to remain displaced somewhere in Yathrib and face our unknown fate,” says sadly.

Many families who were forced to leave Ashti camp in Sulaymaniyah returned to Yathrib district, but they not allowed to return to their former villages in the area known as the forbidden, so they were forced to set up their tents behind a barrier separating them from it. One of the occupants of those tents told the investigator: “We brought our tents with us from Sulaymaniyah, as we are certain that the Popular Mobilization Forces will not allow us to enter our areas. We are here, about 50 families, some of whom can see their homes, but whoever dares to cross the barrier separating the new camp from the forbidden areas will be exposed to their guns.

On April 23, 2024, the displaced return Committee announced the return of 350 families to the Yathrib district, south of Salah al-Din.

As for the researcher in security affairs, Firas Elias, he spoke about “short-term and long-term goals.” He says: “What Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq is doing in the Yathrib district is part of a strategy practiced by the armed factions in most of the areas that were liberated from ISIS control, which is to reshape those areas on a sectarian, economic or political basis.” He explains: “The goal of what is happening in Salah al-Din is to create a new areas that separate the north of the province from its south, since the south represents a Shiite bloc in the midst of a Sunni environment, and this is the short-term goal. As for what is being planned for the future, it is to declare a Shiite province that isolates Baghdad from Salah al-Din, with its center in Samarra”.

The bills of what happened

Civil and political activists believe that resolving the conflicts caused by ISIS and the return of the displaced to their areas, including the Yathrib district, depends primarily on the understandings of the region’s tribes, and this is exactly what some of them are doing there, as a conference was held in the district on May 17, 2024, under the slogan “Peaceful coexistence is our way to build the nation. With the solidarity of our sheikhs and intellectuals, we preserve the unity of Iraq.”

This conference was sponsored by the Albu Sultan tribe, with the participation of Sunni and Shiite tribal sheikhs and security leaders. Three main axes were discussed: “Supporting and backing the government’s reconciliation program, establishing security, rejecting terrorism and reconstruction, and joint cooperation to reject differences.”

The technical deputy to the governor of Salah al-Din, Mufid al-Baldawi, stated that the local government will provide the Yathrib district with “all the necessary services in order to restore stability, and that there are many workshops and conferences that will be held during the coming period to promote peaceful coexistence and reconciliation in the district. The commander of the third regiment of the 41st Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces, which holds the land in the Yathrib district, also attended the conference. He implicitly indicated that the unwanted people would not be allowed to return to the district by saying, “The 41st Brigade is still cooperating with the security forces to secure the land and deny the opportunity to anyone who dares to take advantage of this security that was achieved thanks to the blood of the martyrs that watered this land….” There are those who doubt the usefulness of this peaceful coexistence conference, and they cite as evidence the fact that the governor of Salah al-Din sent his technical assistant to represent him, as well as the commander of the 41st Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces who sent a regiment commander to represent him, in addition to the absence of prominent tribal figures. Amjad (33 years old), a university graduate, returned to the Yathrib district seven months ago after more than eight years of displacement, most of which he spent in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate. He also believes that tribal reconciliation conferences are useless “if they intersect with the interests of the influential forces,” indicating that the Sunnis who used to constitute the majority in the district have now become a minority, and they live in constant anxiety about the possibility of accusation and prosecution with the growth of Shiite influence, whether for the tribes or the Popular Mobilization Forces that control the land. He says regretfully: “Any normal disagreement that could occur between me and anyone else in the area who has connections to the Popular Mobilization Forces means that I will be accused of belonging to ISIS and I may lose my life because of that, so we are constantly making concessions, even though we are among those most affected by ISIS, which killed many of my relatives and stole our property.” He thinks for a moment and then asks: “Those who belonged to ISIS or were loyal to it are known, and we, before others, call for holding them accountable judicially instead of exploiting the issue politically for sectarian goals and economically for private interests, and harming innocent people like us.”