The Refugees

Men were waiting for food distribution at Barda Qaraman camp. They are one of the estimated 1 million internal refugees, the victims of Arabization, scattered through Iraq as a result of varied efforts by Saddam Hussein and his Arab Baath Socialist Party to dominate his nation.

A dish of rice and bean was all for dinner for Talib Muhammad Said, 57, not in the picture, whose family was expelled from Kirkuk 25 days ago and ended up at Barda Qaraman camp. The one eating on the left is Bakhtir, 17, who has Epilepsy, and on the right is Hossiar, 15. Talib Muhammad Said, 57, is the newest arrival, having walked into camp last month with his four children after his oldest son, Sherzad, left Abu Ghraib prison in a wide-scale release of inmates. The party called the release an amnesty and said his son was free. Rejoicing at Sherzad's return was cut short when security officers arrived at his father's house. ``They said: `Your son has been in prison. You are a bad family. You have to leave,''' Mr. Said recalled. Having no tent, the family huddled in a room in an abandoned school.

Farhad Mohamad Karim, 47, eye glasses looking back, eating dinner with his family as her daughter Faiza, 16, stood, left, at their 4mx4m mud hut at Barda Qaraman camp. ``Animals live better than us,'' said Farhod Muhammad Karim, who lives with his seven children in something akin to a mud-brick box. ``I want to go home.'' He and his family were expelled when he refused to sign to change his identity to Arab instead of Kurd, his real identity, in a government form. They are one of the estimated 1 million internal refugees, the victims of Arabization, scattered through Iraq as a result of varied efforts by Saddam Hussein and his Arab Baath Socialist Party to dominate his nation.

One element of the misery caused by President Saddam Hussein's rule was evident at Barda Qaraman camp, when a wealthy Kurdish man donated meat to this encampment of people Mr. Hussein has forced from their homes. Using a rickety balance scale, 73 families divided the meat into 73 portions. It worked out to a few ounces per tent, a bite or two per person for the coming Islamic festival of Id al-Fitr.

An old woman and others waited for food distribution as men were preparing and dividing lamb meat, donated by a wealthy Kurdish man to this encampment of people Saddam Hussein has forced from their homes, at Barda Qaraman camp. They are one of the estimated 1 million internal refugees, the victims of Arabization, scattered through Iraq as a result of varied efforts by Saddam Hussein and his Arab Baath Socialist Party to dominate his nation.

Jaylan Abdullahim, left, and Lemiah Hassan, right, baked bread for neighbors at a mud hut kitchen outside at Barda Qaraman camp. They are one of the estimated 1 million internal refugees, the victims of Arabization, scattered through Iraq as a result of varied efforts by Saddam Hussein and his Arab Baath Socialist Party to dominate his nation.

Naima Tahar, 30, hodling her new born daughter Dyar, 5 month, born on the floor in the mud hut, was expelled three years ago 20 days after her first son was born because her husband refused to join Saddam Hussein's Arab Baath Socialist Party. They are one of the estimated 1 million internal refugees, the victims of Arabization, scattered through Iraq as a result of varied efforts by Saddam Hussein and his Arab Baath Socialist Party to dominate his nation.