Thousands Return to Safer Iraqi Capital

[FVZA_Colonel]

Source: Associated Press

By STEVEN R. HURST

BAGHDAD - In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said Saturday.

Saad al-Azawi, his wife and four children are among them. They fled to Syria six months ago, leaving behind what had become one of the capital's more dangerous districts — west Baghdad's largely Sunni Khadra region.

The family had been living inside a vicious and bloody turf battle between al-Qaida in Iraq and Mahdi Army militiamen. But Azawi said things began changing, becoming more peaceful, in August when radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to stand down nationwide.

About the same time, the Khadra neighborhood Awakening Council rose up against brutal al-Qaida control — the imposition of its austere interpretation of Islam, along with the murder and torture of those who would not comply.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071103/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[ohio2007]

1. Khadra neighborhood Awakening Council is the surge that must continue. nt

[ohio2007]

2. Iraq Again Mulls Amnesty Plan

At Issue Is Whom to Include in Politically Sensitive Program
The Iraqi government has resumed discussions about an amnesty program to encourage insurgents and militiamen to lay down their weapons as daily violence lessens across the country, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials.
Iraq's deputy national security adviser, Safa Hussein, said he has been meeting with various Iraqi officials to generate political support for a "conditional amnesty" program that would initially cover members of insurgent and militia groups who do not have "blood on their hands." For years, Iraqi officials have debated amnesty programs, but they have proved politically impossible to implement in the bitter sectarian climate and amid such rampant violence.

In the past, "many of the areas were controlled by al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups. It was meaningless to give them amnesty when they were in control," Hussein said. "Now they are on the run, so the amnesty has some meaning to the people. I think it could have a very good impact."
Not long after Nouri al-Maliki became prime minister last year, he proposed an amnesty as a way to defuse the violent Sunni insurgency and as part of a broad initiative intended to bring about national reconciliation. ....
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110202069.html