Fallujah
On The Boil Again
By Ali al-Fadhily
29 June, 2007
Inter Press Service
FALLUJAH, Jun 27
(IPS) - Strict curfew and tight security measures have brought
difficult living conditions and heightened tempers to residents of this
besieged city.
The siege in this city located
60km west of Baghdad has entered its second month. There is little sign
of any international attention to the plight of the city. Fallujah,
which is largely sympathetic to the Iraqi resistance, was assaulted
twice by the U.S. military in 2004.
The second attack in November
destroyed roughly three-quarters of the city of 350,000 residents. Now,
Fallujah faces assault of another kind by way of a strict curfew where
people are closed in from all sides.
Many people who had earlier
supported the Iraqi police that works with the U.S. military, now oppose
it.
"We gave full support
to the police force despite opposition from others to forming this force,"
a community leader in the city who asked to be referred to as Ahmed
told IPS. "Others told us this force would only serve the occupation
forces, but we accused them of being against stability and order. Unfortunately,
they appeared to be absolutely right."
Cars have not been permitted
to move on the streets of Fallujah for nearly a month now. A ban was
also enforced on bicycles, but residents were later granted permission
to use them.
"Thank God and President
Bush for this great favour," said Ala'a, a 34-year-old schoolteacher.
"We are the only city in the liberated world with the blessing
now of having bicycles moving freely in the streets."
On May 21 U.S. and Iraqi
forces imposed a security crackdown on the city following continuing
attacks. Local non-governmental organisations such as the Iraqi Aid
Association (IAA) have told reporters that the U.S. military is not
allowing them access to the city.
"We have supplies but
it is impossible to reach the families. They are afraid to leave their
homes to look for food, and children are getting sick with diarrhoea
caused by the dirty water they are drinking," IAA spokesman Fatah
Ahmed told reporters. "We have information that pregnant women
are delivering their babies at home as the curfew is preventing them
from reaching hospital."
Medical services are inaccessible
to most because the hospital is located on the other side of the Euphrates
River from the rest of the city. Extra security checkpoints have severely
hampered movement within the city, and most businesses have closed.
A year ago the local police cut mobile phone services.
The curfew is also restricting
residents' ability to go out and find much needed supplies in the markets.
Residents told IPS that there is on average only two hours electricity
in 24 hours.
Residents say they are up
against killing prices. "Now they are killing us with a new weapon,"
a young man with a mask covering his face told IPS. "A jar of gas
costs 20 dollars and a kilo of tomatoes costs 1.50 dollar, and people
cannot go to work."
"U.S. snipers on rooftops
are enjoying themselves watching us walk around to find a bite of food
for our families," 55-year-old Hajji Mahmood told IPS. "They
laugh at us and call us names. They should know Fallujah is still the
same city that kicked them away three years ago."
Life seems completely paralysed
with little sign of movement under a blazing sun, with temperatures
up to 45 degrees.
"We are sweating to
death because some of us went to those damned elections," said
a 40-year-old lawyer, speaking with IPS on condition of anonymity, referring
to the Jan. 30, 2005 elections.
"The wise men told us
not to, but we believed those crooks of the Islamic Party who promised
to make things better," he said. Many people in the city accuse
the Islamic Party supportive of the U.S. of leading the 'security plan'
in al-Anbar province where Fallujah is located.
A local political analyst
offered his views to IPS via the Internet, on condition of anonymity.
"I find it rather strange
that to control a city under the flag of providing citizens with peace
and prosperity, you deprive them of all signs of life," he said.
"Arab, Muslim and all international community leaders should be
ashamed of themselves for not even talking about this crime.
"Nonetheless, U.S. leaders
are just buying more time towards more failure that they hope will magically
turn into success. I am hopeless of any peace in Iraq as long as the
democrats sold their fight cheap to the Bush administration."
Lt-Col Azize Abdel-Kader,
a Defence Ministry official who coordinates security operations in al-Anbar
said the curfew -- which runs from 6 pm until 8 am -- was necessary
to maintain security.
"It is a temporary curfew
and we hope it can soon end," he told reporters in Baghdad last
week. "We are looking into ways to let aid agencies enter Fallujah
but it is too dangerous for the time being."
(Ali, our correspondent in
Baghdad, works in close collaboration with Dahr Jamail, our U.S.-based
specialist writer on Iraq who travels extensively in the region)
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