The TimesShifty Standards

100,000 Families Are Fleeing Violence, Iraq Official Says
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 29 — A new estimate by one of Iraq's vice presidents has put the number of Iraqi families fleeing sectarian violence at 100,000, far outstripping previous projections and raising the possibility that a total of a half-million people could be displaced.

The estimate, made Friday by Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite leader selected as one of two vice presidents, is much higher than other recent estimates. For example, the national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said in an interview last week that 13,750 families had been displaced, which could mean about 70,000 people.

Yet both statements go far beyond estimates by American military leaders, who have said there is no "widespread movement" of Iraqis fleeing from sectarian fighting.

Even if Mr. Mahdi's estimate proves too high, it suggests how concerned Iraqi leaders have become about the entrenched and vicious sectarian fighting that has reshaped the lives of many Iraqi families, particularly since the Feb. 22 Askariya shrine bombing in Samarra.

Militias — some inside the official Iraqi security forces and some outside — have gained considerable new influence as attacks against civilians have surged, and Iraqis increasingly say that they have more faith in the militias than in the official Iraqi security forces.

"We should stand up against killings and kidnappings and displacement," Mr. Mahdi said in the Shiite holy city of Najaf after a meeting with Iraq's most revered Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Estimates of displaced people are notoriously hard to pin down, partly because many people move in with relatives instead of relocating to a camp. The problem is particularly nettlesome in Iraq, because most families fleeing violence are leaving neighborhoods of mixed ethnicity and may have only an hour's drive or less to find shelter with friends or relatives. But at a time when there are concerns that Iraq is moving toward a civil war, such estimates are being sought as a way to chart the scope of the problem.

Excuse me, Oppel? If you have to leave your home, how is it that you aren't "displaced" if you happen to have family to stay with? If you have to leave your home, you are displaced. Period. Are the Katrina refugees from NOLA who had family in Knoxville or Minneapolis not displaced?

Gawd, the Times makes me nuts.