Stories Of Looting And Despair Abound In Baghdad

Interviews By Kim Sengupta

The Independent - UK

4-12-3

For George Bush and Tony Blair, the war was necessary to offer Iraq's 24 million people the opportunity of better lives and freedom from oppression. But, amid a general breakdown in law and order this week, with violent looters on the streets, the reception for the British and American forces has not always been as warm as Messrs Bush and Blair would have liked.

 

The Independent asked a number of Iraqis for their views on the war.

 

Dr Jamal Hassan al-Qasim, 53

 

"Yesterday evening I had two men knock on my door at around 8.30pm. One had been shot in the neck ... I dressed the wound, and told him he must go to Saddam General [in Saddam City] for further examination. What is happening now is unbelievable. There is no law on the streets. Where are the Americans and the British?"

 

Murtanna Ali Jawad, 33. Owner of shop in Rashid St

 

"My store had stationery and office equipment. I had some security, but they used a truck to break in and take everything ... If we had tried to do something they would have beaten us up, maybe even kill us. I have lost everything. We are very, very frightened ... I'm glad the Americans came, but they are not protecting us."

 

Hana al-Nasr, who lives behind Firdous Park, next to the Palestine Hotel

 

"We have not had the criminals in this street yet because the Americans are near by. But what will happen when they leave? They have put up roadblocks everywhere ... One of my neighbours is an old lady, and her family needs medicine, but they cannot go out. We know the Americans have shot people going to their roadblocks."

 

Looter at the Sarif Hotel

 

"Everyone is doing this. Anyway, we are poor people."

 

Jabryah Aziz, 41

 

"Tell the Americans to stop the killing and the looting. We can't live like this much longer, with Muslims looting other Muslims."

 

Arkan Daoud Boutros, 24, a currency exchange clerk

 

"We are sleepless all the nights. We don't care about the government buildings, but we are afraid for our homes, for our families"

 

Sahid, 49, a Marsh Arab, on being told Saddam Hussein had been toppled

 

"Thank you Mr Bush, Thank you Mr Blair."

 

Ali Abbas, proprietor of the Gardenia supermarket in the Zayouna district of east Baghdad

 

"Please, we need our peace and security. These are not good people, and they are stealing everything. We cannot sleep at night because they are really bandits."

 

Hamid Hilla, a 35-year-old computer technician

 

"They could ask the police to come back to work, and many of them would. They could ask the electricity workers and the water workers as well. We need these services. These services are very important."

 

Leila Jeneen, Baghdad wife and mother

 

"I am so angry with them [the Allies], so angry for what they put us through these past few weeks. If they come I will drink a cup of their blood. I am still shaking from the bombardment."

 

Safaa Hashemi, a surgeon at al-Kindi Hospital

 

"At night, some bad people came and they took away a lot of medicines and drugs and they stole two of our ambulances. We can't really operate properly without medicines and drugs, and we need the ambulances to send out to help people."

 

Iraqi soldier, Hiethan Faisal, 28

 

"I took this truck from the barracks. Everybody ran away. Why leave it there to be destroyed? So I repainted it white yesterday. Now I am a truck driver."

 

Taleb Abdel-Razaq, who works in a Baghdad coffee shop

 

"I cannot believe it. Are these really Iraqis? What happened to their honour and their patriotism? This is our country. How could they do this? If they have to loot, fine. But why should they torch everywhere they go?"

 

Alaa Omar Saeed, Baghdad

 

"It's chaos. The fighting is no longer with the Americans and British, now it is between those stealing in the streets."

 

Shopkeeper as youths helped themselves to everything in his small hardware store

 

"Is this your liberation?"

<http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=396398>

 

 

 

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=396398