Chaos, Murder And Mayhem
By Haifa Zangana
26 October, 2004
The
Guardian
The
kidnapping of Margaret Hassan is shocking but not surprising. We have
come to accept that the same thing might happen to any of our family
or friends. In fact, it already has happened to my dearest friend Nada.
Last month, her nephew Baree Ibrahim, an engineer, was kidnapped. I
remember Baree very well from the mid-70s. Here is his aunt's account
of what happened:
"Dear Haifa,
"My nephew
Baree was picked up on September 25 and no ransom was asked. Actually
the kidnappers didn't contact his family, and this led us to believe
that they mistook him for someone else as he looked so European. He
was beheaded on SaturdayOctober 2.
"I had a phone
call from his brother to tell me to tune to al-Jazeera. I saw on TV,
Baree talking with mute sound and the writing at the bottom of the screen
saying that Iraqi engineer Baree Nafee Dawood Ibrahim was beheaded by
'Jamaa ansar assunna' and the detail of the beheading procedure can
be seen on one of the Islamic sites. I called my sister immediately.
She was unable to answer the phone. They couldn't mourn him traditionally
because the body was not found. A couple of days later his brother was
in Baghdad. He and his cousins went every day to the hospital's mortuary
to look for Baree's body but they couldn't find him. They even went
to look for his body in side streets but to no avail.
"My sister
and her immediate family are all now in Amman, Jordan and my other brother
and sisters and their children are preparing to leave Iraqs for Syria.
At the moment there are about 2 million Iraqi in Jordan and the same
in Syria and Lebanon. Some 200,000 Christian Iraqis have fled the country
in the last couple of months. This is the freedom and democracy promised
to the Iraqis. Nada."
This is the daily
reality in the new Iraq, especially in Baghdad. An average of 100 Iraqis
are killed every day. Kidnapping for profit or revenge is widespread.
Young girls are sold to neighbouring countries for prostitution.
Madeline Hadi, a
nine-year-old girl, was kidnapped from her father's car in the al-Doura
district of Baghdad. Zinah Falih Hassan, a student in al-Warkaa secondary
school, also in Baghdad, was kidnapped on her way back from school.
Asma, a young engineer, was abducted in Baghdad. She was shopping with
her mother, sister and male relative when six armed men kidnapped her.
She was repeatedly raped.
Mahnaz Bassam and
Raad Ali Abdul Aziz were kidnapped last month along with two Italian
aid workers and subsequently released. Unlike the Italians, the two
Iraqis did not receive media attention in the west. No one prayed for
them.
And aid workers
are not the only victims - 250 university professors and scientists
have been killed in the past year, according to the Union of University
Lecturers, and more than 1,000 academics have left the country
Iraqi journalists
are also frequently harassed, threatened and attacked by occupying troops.
This year, 12 of the 14 journalists killed were Iraqi, and six Iraqi
media workers were also killed. Many journalists have also fled the
country.
More than 100 Iraqi
doctors and consultants have been killed or kidnapped in the past year.
A spokesperson for the Iraqi Medical Society described the kidnappings
as "intimidating and forcing them to leave the country". The
latest victim was Dr Turki Jabar al Saadi, chair of the Iraqi veterinary
society. He was shot in the head on October 21. None of these killings
has been investigated. These atrocities go unrecorded. The dead are
unnamed.
There are indeed
reasons for all this chaos, murder and mayhem. Those reasons lie in
the nature of invasion, war and, most crucially of all, occupation.
The US-led occupation
forces presented themselves as champions of liberation, freedom and
democracy. What they have achieved is chaos, collective punishment,
assassinations, abuse and torture of prisoners, and destruction of the
country's infrastructure.
The "sovereign"
interim government has, like the Iraqi Governing Council before it,
proved to be the fig leaf shielding the occupying forces from Iraqis'
frustration and outrage.
Powerless, and with
no credibility among Iraqi people, the interim government's failure
is disastrous. In addition to the lack of security, there is not the
slightest improvement in electricity supply, the availability of clean
water, employment, or health and education services. Fighting between
occupying troops and various Iraqi groups has become widespread in more
than 12 cities.
Without the consent
of the Iraqi people, Ayad Allawi and President Ghazi al-Yawer declared
that it was the wish of the populace that the occupying troops remain.
They also stood aside while F16s and helicopter gunships showered densely
populated areas in Sadr city, Falluja, Samraa, Najaf, Kut, Kufa, Tel
Afar and elsewhere. The resistance in Falluja is now so persistent that
Iraq's director of national intelligence admitted: "We could take
the city, but we would have to kill everyone in it." British troops
are going to be deployed to achieve this.
In his last monthly
press conference before the invasion of Iraq on February 18 2003, Tony
Blair said that removing President Saddam will "save a lot of lives"
as well as removing the chemical and biological weapons." The people
who will celebrate the most will be the people of Iraq, he continued.
We are not celebrating.
Death is covering us like fine dust. Four-fifths of Iraqi people demand
the immediate withdrawal of occupying forces from Iraq. Margaret Hassan
is one of them. Will Tony Blair listen this time?
Haifa
Zangana is an Iraqi-born novelist
Copyright: The Guardian
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