Low Crime Rate
In Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail
01 December, 2004
Dahrjamailiraq.com
Abut
Talat and I, snarled in the horrendous daily traffic of Baghdad, decide
to laugh about it. Maybe we should consider a camel, he
ponders, That way we dont have to feed it benzene!
We both start laughing while our car hasnt moved for several minutes.
An Iraqi Police
truck races by on the wrong side of the road, sirens blaring
to
do what?
Plus, a camel
is better than a horse because it has 6 stomachs, he adds, starting
to sound serious about this, That way it can go for even longer!
I have tears now from laughing so hard, while Abu Talat holds his hands
up, signaling for me to wait, Or even better, each car should
have two donkeys to tow it, so we never need benzene again!
We both lurch forward
in our seats with laughter as I bang my hands on the dash board. Its
either laugh or cry in Iraq. Without our joking, we would have lost
it a long time ago.
While the humanitarian
crisis facing families who remain trapped inside Fallujah grinds on,
US-backed interim prime minister Ayad Allawi announced yesterday that
the crime rate in Fallujah was down after the US siege of the city.
Remember that not long ago, Allawi also announced that every person
killed in Fallujah was a fighter, ie-not one civilian was killed.
As heavy traffic
of Apache helicopters roars incessantly over Baghdad, fierce clashes
continue against the occupation forces while the interim prime minister
is in Jordan, attempting to persuade Iraqis living there to participate
in the upcoming elections.
With at least 134
US soldiers killed in Iraq this month so far, yet another huge car bomb
detonated into a military convoy on the dreaded airport road. While
witnesses reported seeing several bodies lying on the ground at the
scene, the military has yet to announce any casualty counts. Another
car bomb in Beji detonated near a US patrol, killing 4 Iraqis and wounding
at least 19, including 2 US soldiers.
Allawi continues
to insist that violence in Iraq is decreasing since the siege of Fallujah.
After picking up
some friends, we are snarled in more horrendous traffic near the airport
road on our way to another refugee camp. Razor wire stretches across
the road as helicopters and military hardware are clustered just up
the road. While the military cut most of the trees along the road to
prevent attacks, car bombs are something they cant stop.
Meanwhile, the military
refused to allow yet another aid convoy into Fallujah. They were turned
back because the military personnel told them the Ministry of Health
would be allowed to send a relief convoy in 8 or 9 days.
There are at least
150 families trapped within the city, and the military refuses to let
any of them out. While a few ambulances were allowed into one section
of the city a few days ago, there are at least three main neighborhoods
that the military is keeping a tight lid on. Refugees continue to report
the use of napalm and phosphorous weapons-of seeing dead bodies with
no bullet holes in them, just scorched patches of skin.
More refugees at
the Amiryah bomb shelter camp in Baghdad are telling the same horror
stories. A man who fled the city says, Fallujah is in a disaster!
He holds his hands out and pleads, We call on all NGOs and
aid organizations to help Fallujans! We just want to return to our land;
we know our homes are destroyed, but wed rather sleep in tents
in our own city.
The scene at the
nearby Melouki Mosque is chaos. Crowds of men stand outside gates holding
their food ration papers in the air to prove they are from Fallujah
in order to receive small heaters, stoves, foodstuffs and blankets.
Thankfully, an international NGO managed to donate funds to purchase
much of these desperately needed supplies for refugees.
Medicines have also
been purchased with the donations for Iraqi doctors to dispense to the
refugees.
Sheikh Hussein who
is in charge of the relief effort at the mosque is struggling to cope
with the crisis.
We stand in a small
courtyard behind the mosque away from the crowds talking. I notice a
white military surveillance balloon nearby, as helicopters rumble overhead.
Some people
not even from Fallujah are so desperate they are coming here to get
supplies and pretending to be refugees, he tells us.
Women and children
are crying outside the gates as men grapple for the small heaters and
stoves.
I am reminded of
what occurred in Lidice, Czechoslovakia during World War II. Similar
to what the US military has done to Fallujah, the German Nazis leveled
Lidice as payback collective punishment for the death of a high ranking
member of the German security administration, Reinhard Heydrich, who
was killed by Czech patriots in 1942.
Last March, four
mercenaries were brutally killed in Fallujah, which led to the first
US siege of the city in April as collective payback for the attack.
Mostly for political reasons that siege was ceased, which set the stage
for the recent attack on the city.
Similarly, Heydrich
was assassinated by Czech patriots who were accused of being aided by
the village of Lidice. Thus, Hitler ordered the village to be erased,
and all men in the city over the age of 16 were killed.
Musar, a woman at
the mosque standing nearby is weeping. My 5 cousins and uncle
are trapped there, she cries, They are not fighters but
the Americans wont let them out. And now the soldiers are coming
to our refugee camp and detaining people!
Musar begins to
plead with us, They took all the doctors out of the hospitals.
My brother is a doctor there and they made him leave his work.
She stops because she is sobbing, then continues, We have nothing!
You must help us. I need my cousins and my uncle! Where are they? I
just want to see them. None of them are fighters.
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