A mixed soccer team has been created to bring people together, but the city remains unofficially divided into the eastern Sunni section and the western Shiite section.
"It's really a cease-fire at this point. It's not reconciliation. They just stopped shooting each other," said Army Capt. Timothy Dugan, with the 7th Cavalry, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division. The unit has been here since January and has seen the violence subside and the population surge back, but it has also seen how hard it will be to make Saba al Bor whole again.
Sunnis, and some Shiite residents, as well as U.S. forces in Saba al Bor, say a major problem is that Shiite-run government ministries in Baghdad neglect the needs of returning Sunnis.
On the Sunni side of town, for example, there is one school with six classrooms for 500 pupils. On the Shiite side, there are 11 functioning schools.
The Sunni school is overseen by two headmasters, one Sunni and one Shiite, who are old friends. They use their salaries to pay the seven volunteer teachers, because they say the ministry is dragging its feet hiring anyone to teach Sunni children.
"We don't have enough teachers or doctors, but if you go to the Shiite sector, you'll see it's different," said the Sunni headmaster, Ali Aziz Sultan.
"I'm a Shiite, and it's easy for me to go down there to the clinic," added his colleague, Moyed Hadie. "But it's difficult for the Sunnis to go there."
U.S. and Iraqi officials say such complaints are due more to fear and distrust than recognition of the current situation. "The problem is, people keep looking to the past. It is hard to make them look forward," Muhsin said.
But most agree that given the past, it's understandable.
"If I had lost my brother to Shiites, I'd be afraid to walk to the clinic on the other side of town too," said Ali, the Sunni who accused the government of not paying compensation to returning Sunnis.
People who stayed through the war, like him, now see how much better things are, Ali said. "But people who just got here one week ago, it's hard for them to cross to the other side."
--
tina.susman@latimes.com
Times staff writers Peter Spiegel and Saad Khalaf in Baghdad contributed to this report.
