Iraqi refugees return to face uncertainty at home

By Haider Salahuddin

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Mazen returned home in Baghdad last week to a bare living room. He had sold his furniture to pay for life in Syria, where he fled in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Working as a day labourer there had hardly helped him make ends meet. His mother, Um Safaa, sold her jewellery to support him but he eventually ran out of money.

"We were humiliated there," said Um Safaa, as she stood next to him and his daughter, who rushed to hug him once he stepped into the flat in southern Baghdad.

Pressed by poverty, Mazen, who did not give his surname, saw a recent drop in bombings and sectarian bloodshed across Iraq as a chance to return home and search for a fresh start.

Thousands of other Iraqi refugees have done the same over the past month, encouraged by the lull in violence, which is partly attributed to a 10-month-old crackdown on militants in Baghdad, and the "surge" of 30,000 extra U.S. troops who were fully deployed in mid-June.

But some returnees say they face a difficult task trying to find jobs, repair their houses or reclaim homes that may have been occupied by others during their absence.

The sectarian violence, which worsened in 2006, has created almost exclusive Sunni and Shi'ite enclaves in Baghdad, as many from both sects fled their previously mixed neighbourhoods.

"We don't know what to do yet. We don't even have any stuff left," Um Safaa, in her late 50s, said, pointing to a living room furnished only with straw mats and a television set.