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Last month, my colleagues and I travelled around the center of Iraq -- formerly the most violent part of the country -- and visited infamous places such as Eskanderia, in the so-called "Sunni triangle of death" and Fallujah, in Anbar province. Everywhere we went, we met with aid workers, local and central government officials, and of course with displaced Iraqis or families who recently returned to their homes. We spent two weeks trying to find an answer to the key question all displaced Iraqis ask themselves: Can they return home? And if not, what would it take for them to return to their cities, neighborhoods and houses?

There are no easy answers to these questions. The security situation in Iraq is subject to a lot of speculation. While security has undeniably improved over the past year, the number of violent incidents remains extremely high, as is the number of Iraqis dying every month in targeted killings or general violence. As for the displaced, they do not seem to trust that the lull in violence will last. According to the International Organization for Migration, less than 300,000 have returned home. The total number of Iraqis who have been displaced, both inside and outside of the country could be as high as 4 to 5 million. And most of the displaced people Refugees International has interviewed in Iraq and the region believe they will never be able to return to their homes.

"It is not just that the Mehdi’s army took my house," a Sunni woman in Fallujah told me when I asked her if she considered going back to her home in Baghdad. "Even if they gave it back to me, I wouldn’t return. They killed my husband, and even if they stopped fighting for now, they are still in the streets. I don’t feel safe there."

"Would you return to a place where your father was killed before your eyes?" a Shi’a man displaced to Karbala asked me. "My old neighbors tried to go back to Baghdad," a Shi’a woman told me in Hilla. "Militias blew up their house to make it clear to all Shi’as that they are not welcomed there."

Walking around Baghdad, I reflected on the many tragedies and concerns that had been recounted to me by displaced Iraqis throughout the country. In some areas of the country, it is sometimes easy to forget the terrible violence that tore the country apart for years, and continues today. There is a sense of normalcy -- markets are open, children are playing in parks, we even ate ice cream by the side of the road.

But the scars the war has left behind are still raw. Baghdad, like the rest of the country, resembles a huge, balkanized military base. Soldiers and checkpoints are everywhere. So are huge walls -- separating neighborhoods from each other. The strategy seems to have worked. People no longer really move from one area to the next. But the underlying problems that have caused the violence have never been addressed, and many wonder what will happen to Iraq when the U.S. leaves and the walls are taken down.

On the 7th day of our visit to Iraq, we went to Amriya, a Sunni area of Baghdad which is known as a hub for Al-Qaeda activities in Baghdad. The neighborhood is completely sealed off, and like other areas, the military checks every car to make sure it is registered in that locality. That day, it took us two hours to convince the Iraqi army to let us in to attend a meeting with displaced Iraqis. "If you get killed or kidnapped, it will be on us," they told us before begrudgingly agreeing to escort us in.

However, visiting houses in Amriya was out of the question. "The main streets are secured. But we can not guarantee your safety in the rest, even accompanied by us," the captain said. If my safety cannot be guaranteed by a truck full of armed soldiers, how can displaced Iraqis feel comfortable enough to return here, I asked the head of the most important local NGOs. "They don’t," she said. Of the eight Shi’a families who returned, three had their houses blown up and members of their families harmed or killed.

Prime Minister Maliki and his Government are keen to put behind them the displacement crisis in Iraq. They believe that by the end of 2009, all the displaced should have returned to their homes or settled permanently where they are. The Government has put in place mechanisms to help people get their occupied houses back and is providing limited financial assistance to returnees. Its strategy is flawed though, since it is not looking at the root causes of displacement, at community reconciliation and at durable solutions for those who have valid reasons for not wanting to return. And more importantly, it is not looking at the reality of Iraq today: a country where the most basic of services are still not available to many, and where one can still get killed for belonging to a different religion or political party.