Gun Rule In Basra
By Judit Neurink
Al-Ahram
14 May, 2003Shops are slowly starting to reopen in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, children have returned to near-empty schools, but the city remains an unsafe place at night.
"It really hurts to see the lack of security," says a former Iraqi police officer, who wished to remain anonymous, outside a shop selling arms in Basra. "I don't see the British doing anything about it."
The police station where he worked was first looted and then taken over by a homeless Iraqi family, as was the prison, and the British troops in control of the city did nothing to prevent it.
Law and order in Iraq has completely disappeared, with lawlessness and impunity flourishing in their stead.
This is evident in all sectors of society, starting with the streets where traffic police are absent and traffic lights are completely ignored. For weeks people have been engaging in indiscriminate looting; first the bombed buildings of the government secret service and Ba'ath Party, then hotels, shops, schools and universities -- nothing is sacred.
The elegant Sheraton Hotel not only lost its contents, but the external wood panelling as well as doors and windows.
At the Technical Institute lecturers tried to prevent a man -- obviously poor -- from removing a lead pipe from the grounds. He put up a fight and managed to make off with his prize.
The staff asked the British troops to send a tank to guard the gate to discourage looters, but a tank positioned at the gate of Basra University made no difference at all. Many people say they even saw British soldiers encouraging looters, addressing them with "Ali Baba, come on!"
Looted goods are on sale at the street markets in the centre of town where some of the city's many poor try to make money to survive; nobody checks where the chairs, desks or building material came from.
And nobody stops people from cutting down trees and bushes along the roadsides of the town for wood for cooking -- few can afford to purchase the few bottles of gas that are available.
The number of people grouped around the former policeman in front of the gun shop has grown and plastic chairs have appeared. Stories abound about car accidents which were "solved" when drivers brandished their kalashnikovs, and about robbers who entered the back of a bank while British troops guarded the front. Stories about girls being abducted and expensive cars changing hands at gunpoint. Gunshots can still be heard in the dead of night in this city, and almost nobody ventures out after nine.
"There are far too many guns around," said the former policeman.
Fear of secret service agents was always deeply ingrained in Iraqi nature, and remains so to this day. The number of guns in the country is estimated at seven million where the population is approximately 25 million. Saddam Hussein distributed guns to members of the Ba'ath Party, and some are said to still have many guns in storage.
"Disarming should be the first priority," said the erstwhile policeman, and he himself is willing to make a start by conducting house-to-house searches. However, he is unwilling to assume his former post under the conditions imposed by the British. They wanted to employ only 34 of the former 6,000-strong Basra police force, who would patrol alongside the British dressed in white shirts and black pants -- without proper uniforms -- armed with only a stick. "Thieves and thugs have kalashnikovs, and the police have to carry out their job armed with just a stick," he complained.
While hundreds of Iraqi men started policing the streets in conjunction with American troops in Baghdad, only a few former policemen have joined the British policing operation in Basra.
Some citizens of Basra made it clear they did not want the old police force to reform because of their affiliation with Saddam's regime. Many have no respect for the old force which, they say, was as corrupt as the rest of the system.
In a city devoid of law and order, one gun shop owner, while disliking the former leader, wishes for the return of Saddam saying he, at least, managed to obtain law and order.
Cries of "You fool" greet this exclamation, continuing with "Saddam was the biggest thief of them all!"
Not everybody is so openly critical, out of fear of the former regime -- which not all believe has really disappeared. These people want to see the former leaders imprisoned with their own eyes. And they have every reason to be fearful, according to Professor Riad Al-Assadi.
Al-Assadi is a professor of international politics at the University of Basra, and he received threats on his life after openly opposing Saddam Hussein and his regime at a meeting last week. The threats were made via postcards, which he received a day after the meeting, and which he takes quite seriously.
"Saddam's military and Ba'ath members have gone underground and are still working for him," he maintains, which is why he insists on the coalition taking control of policing tasks, as is required of an occupation force according to the Geneva Conventions.
But not only the lack of security is driving Basra citizens to the brink of despair. Drivers waiting for hours in a queue at the only functioning petrol station almost explode with anger as it shuts up shop for the night.
"I have to take my sick child to a doctor," shouts one angry man. "How can this happen in a country which has so much oil?" retorts another. Guns then appeared, and the near- explosive situation is defused with the appearance of British tanks.
Despair has taken hold because people have run out of money; what little they had is now gone. No salaries have been paid for two months and many people have been condemned to the ranks of the unemployed after the looting of their place of employment, be it bank, shop or government office. Worry about the immediate future abounds, and for those who have been paid, there are additional problems. Professor Al-Assadi was paid last week, but in 15,000-dinar bank notes, which no shopkeeper will accept. These notes have been forged in the past and none of the banks in Basra are open for business. This money is effectively worthless.
"It is such a mess," he sighs.
And so say all of the other good citizens of Basra.