One
Picture Sits Over Differing Surveys
By Ali al-Fadhily
28 March, 2007
Inter Press Service
BAGHDAD, Mar 26 (IPS)
- The two surveys, one following the other, told quite different
stories about Iraq. But Iraqis did not need to look at either to know
what their own story is like.
The Sunday Times of London
published the results of a survey Mar. 18 carried out by the British
firm Opinion Research Business that claimed that most Iraqis prefer
life under the new government to life under Saddam Hussein.
Another published the same
day, sponsored by USA Today newspaper, the ABC news channel in the United
States, BBC and the German television network ARD, found that six in
ten Iraqis thought their lives were going badly, and only a third expected
anything would get better in a year's time.
But Iraqis were not looking
at the surveys - they do not need to. Life around them tells its own
story.
"Our government and
its American friends don't know much about us," 35-year-old teacher
Razzaq Ahmed from Ramadi told IPS. "All they care about is their
war against al-Qaeda."
And residents say the government
seems to care little about the rights of Iraqi people, their right to
life itself. One event after another drives home that message to people.
The killing of 18 boys at
a football field in Ramadi last month has left Iraqis fuming. Ramadi,
100 km west of Baghdad, is capital of the restive al-Anbar province.
The United Nations Children's
Agency UNICEF said in a statement that "the loss of so many innocent
children at play is unacceptable." A statement from the office
of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the killing of the boys "a
brutal act" that "reveals the ugly face of terrorists."
The killing of the boys at
the football field was bad enough, but confusion arising from several
contradictory statements infuriated people further. By one account the
boys died after a car bomb was detonated near them. Another report said
the U.S. forces set off an explosion near a football field to get rid
of some material.
There is no evidence that
U.S. forces were responsible for killing the boys, but the confused
reports inflamed anger against them nevertheless.
"Americans say it is
al-Qaeda that did it," Suha Aziz, mother of a four-year-old boy
killed a year ago in U.S. military fire told IPS. "But it is their
responsibility to maintain peace in Iraq, no matter who does what."
Surveys differ, but most
Iraqis seem agreed now in their opposition to the U.S.-led occupation.
That includes many leaders from al-Anbar who negotiated with the U.S.
military earlier.
"They were only fishing
for collaborators through the so-called negotiations," a Ramadi
tribal chief told IPS. "The security situation is getting worse
and worse and if the Americans do not kill us, then it is for sure that
they cannot protect us."
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions,
an occupying power has a duty to ensure public order and safety in the
territory under its authority. The duty attaches as soon the occupying
force exercises control or authority over civilians of that territory.
International law also stipulates
that the occupying force is responsible for protecting the population
from violence by third parties, including newly formed armed groups.
Occupation forces have under
the law the duty to ensure local security, which includes protecting
persons, including minority groups and former government officials,
from reprisals and revenge attacks.
U.S. troops are having a
hard time protecting themselves. Al-Anbar has seen some of the strongest
resistance against U.S. occupation forces. Security operations in the
area, including two massive assaults on Fallujah, have done nothing
to calm down the uprising. U.S. bases near Fallujah regularly face mortar
attacks.
"The situation in al-Anbar
province is still as bad as ever with so many players who are all armed
and dangerous," Shakir Ali from Haditha, 200km west of Baghdad,
told IPS. "The new militia formed by the U.S. and Iraqi authorities
are trying to prove their power at the expense of our citizens."
Officials continue to paint
an upbeat picture. Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, the U.S. commander in charge
of Baghdad's security told reporters March 20 that residents were pleased
with new measures taken.
"Security has been improved,
and people can get back to the business of life and not have to worry
about getting in and out of their cars, going to market," Fil said.
"But we've got a ways to go and we're really just on the front
edge of this thing."
(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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