Homeward bound

One year on from the fall of Saddam's Baghdad, Iraqi Shia expatriates are still looking for a safe haven. Peter Willems reports on their conditions in Yemen

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Images of Iraq regularly show bombings, missile attacks and ambushes, and it is not clear when a new Iraqi government will be fully established and the economy up and running. One group that is concerned about the future is Iraqi Shia living in Yemen. Thousands of Shia fled to Yemen after the Saddam Hussein regime brutally crushed an uprising in southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War. It is believed there are more Iraqi Shia expatriates in Yemen than anywhere else in the Middle East.

Even though most moved to Yemen to escape the harsh conditions under the now fallen dictator, feelings about Saddam being ousted by the coalition forces are mixed. Some argue that a Western force occupying Iraq is just as bad as Saddam's tyranny, if not worse.

"I will be happy only when Iraq is liberated from occupation," Hussein Abdul-Amir, an Iraqi Shia who owns a barbershop in Sanaa, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "There is no difference between Saddam and US occupation. Saddam treated Shia as animals, but now we are under US control."

An Iraqi engineer said that he is waiting for orders to come from Ayatollah Ali Al-Husseini Al-Sistani, the influential cleric, to Iraq's Shia, who make up 60 per cent of the country's population. "If Al-Sistani issues a fatwa to fight against US occupation, I will go and join the fight," said the engineer.

But many others are making plans to return home and start their lives there again, regardless of the lack of security. "The most important thing is that Saddam is gone," Munir Al-Obeidi, an electrical engineer living in Yemen, told the Weekly. "Anything now is not as bad as it was [under] Saddam Hussein."

Al-Obeidi and several of his friends have plans to move back to Baghdad next month. Others are waiting to complete their current obligations, such as work and studies, but will return as soon as they can. "I will go back when I finish school in five months," said Nawaf Al-Kaladi, a student at Sana'a University. "It does not matter if there are explosions or attacks. We are used to such things. It is time to go back to our country."

Life for some Iraqi Shia in Yemen has not been easy since the war began. As the majority of Arabs in the Middle East opposed the war, Shia were occasionally stereotyped by Yemenis as supporting the United States-led invasion. After an Iraqi teacher told his high school students that he was pleased to see Saddam go, some of his students came back and sprayed bullets in the classroom using AK-47s. Other Shia are often questioned on the street about their position on the war. "I am often stopped, and they ask me why I did not go back and support Saddam and fight the Americans," said Al-Obeidi.

Even though those who are planning to go back soon are concerned about conflict with Sunnis in Iraq, they do not think that the source of confrontation will come from within. They believe that good relations with Sunni families can prevent internal fighting. Many of their relatives have been married to Iraqi Sunnis.

According to Amir, who has four sisters that are married to Sunnis, the two groups will live together peacefully because Saddam was responsible for sectarian strife while he was leading the country. He claims that Shia and Sunnis did not clash before Saddam rose to power

But some Iraqi Shia in Yemen are worried that groups outside Iraq may cause conflict.

Seeking to minimise the possibilities of conflict, Iraqi Shia in Yemen oppose the creation of an Islamic state in Iraq and instead support the idea of a democratic government which would prevent favouritism towards one sect. "The first thing I want is democracy," Amir told the Weekly. "This way we can be free, we can express our ideas, there will be freedom of speech, and Sunnis, Shia and Christians can live together."