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Meanwhile in Iraq...
Also in Iraq, elections are on the way.
If they actually will succeed in making them happen is another case.
Today the police chief of Sadr City was killed.
Sadr City used to be Saddam City. And unlike the name lets you suspect, it are the slobs of Bagdad.
Back in 2002, when I was in Iraq -and that was still under Saddam, I once visited it.
First some background:
The district is one of the poorest in Baghdad. Unemployment is rampant. Homes are in disrepair. The population consists mostly of Shiite Moslems.
Piles of trash and long pools of raw sewage line the boulevards, while battered looking men stand on corners with shovels waiting in the hot sun for work.
Living deep in every alley are the families of martyrs from the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, from riots against Saddam Hussein and from executions on the gallows of Iraq's prisons.
Every billboard, painting and poster advertises them - from shaikhs, Ayat Allah clerics and religious students killed by the former regime, to Ali and Hussein, the 7th-century father and son - cousin and grandson of the Messenger Muhammad - who inspired the Shia sect of Islam.
Back to my story.
When, back then, we wanted to visit Saddam City, our 'guides' -read intelligence guards- even abandoned us.
They insisted in saying we were not allowed.
Then we sneaked out.
The fact turned out, it was not dangerous in a military sense, the danger was within the people.
We walked into the district and very soon, many people appeared out of their small houses. Smiling, laughing, talking. But soon the crowd was growing into a larger amount, and people started touching us. Until the moment, I looked at another journalist, and said 'Go, it is the moment.' Before us, behind and even above us, there was a bunch of people. Luckily we managed to get back in a nice way, walking faster and faster.
Just in time we got into the car, on which people started to jump and kick. The driver just started driving, almost killed somebody, but we got out of the district.
Now, some years later, I realize out of what we were rescued.
If only we would have hesitated a little longer, people would be able to attack us.
Out of what? Despair?
Seeing several 'tourists' with many dollars in their pockets, allowing them to eat for several weeks?
The explanation why this district became one of the nests of the Iraqi terrorist cells, is not hard to find. In Sadr City people have nothing to loose.
Posted on January 6, 2005
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