After delay, some Iraqi refugees return from Iran

[Socialist Christian]

http://www.iht.com/articles/118422.html


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A first, small convoy of 69 Iraqi refugees returned home this week after months of negotiations with coalition forces in Iraq, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
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The Iraqis, a third of them children, crossed into Iraq on Wednesday and went to the southern city of Basra. They had left the Ashrafi refugee camp, near the southern city of Ahwaz, in two buses with six truckloads of possessions. An earlier convoy planned for the last week of August was postponed after the bomb blast at the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
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Before the fall of Saddam Hussein, there were 200,000 Iraqi refugees in Iran, nearly half of the Iraqi refugee population worldwide. Most had fled to Iran after the Shiite uprising in 1991.
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After Saddam was removed from power this year, the American-led authorities delayed the return of refugees, concerned that a flood of returning refugees could include people dedicated to fighting the occupation forces. Many refugees made the trip illegally; others pressured the United Nations and Iranian authorities to speed their return.
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