In Baghdad, 'you don't know what will happen' By John F. Burns The New York Times Thursday, January 27, 2005
BAGHDAD Raad al-Naqib was one of many Iraqis who celebrated on the day more than 21 months ago when American troops entered Baghdad and overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein. After living decades under the repression of Saddam and the Baath party, he felt, that day, that he was free at last. . But Naqib, a 46-year-old dentist, will not vote Sunday, when Iraqis will have their first opportunity in a generation to participate in an election with no predetermined outcome. . After what has been mostly a non-campaign - precious few rallies, only the most sporadic street electioneering, political parties and coalitions that have mostly kept their candidates' names secret for fear of assassinations - he says he has found no leader or group that warrants his support. . But talking to Naqib this week, another compelling reason emerged for not exercising the franchise that has taken his entire adult life time to arrive. . It was, he said, far too dangerous when insurgent groups have warned, on Islamic militant Web sites and fliers distributed on Baghdad's streets, that they will target anybody who approaches a polling station, along with candidates, election workers, police and any others involved in organizing or protecting the elections. . For Naqib, like many of Baghdad's six million people, the elections have raised the prospect of yet another spike in the hazards that have become a routine of daily life - suicide car bombings, planted explosives, kidnappings and firefights between insurgents and American and Iraqi forces that kill civilians in crossfire. . Although the American military command has cited surveys that have purportedly shown 80 percent of Baghdad's residents eager to vote, informal surveys by reporters have turned up many people like Naqib who say they will stay away. . "Every day, when you leave your home, you don't know what will happen - bombs, bullets, kidnapping," Naqib said as he braced himself against the near-freezing cold in the garden of the private sports club where he had taken his wife and three children for lunch, their first family outing in months. . "You ask me about hope - there is no hope," Naqib said. . "On ordinary days, I cannot even allow my children to play in the garden. To them, a garden is something they only see through windows," the dentist added. . In one Baghdad office, only one of 20 people asked said he intended to vote, the others all citing the fear of being targeted by insurgents, either as they walk to the polls - all civilian traffic has been banned on polling day - or after they return home with indelible ink on their fingers that will be used to prevent people voting more than once. American commanders, showing that they, too, are worried about the turnout, have included Baghdad among the four of Iraq's 18 provinces where security issues pose a major threat to the voting. . The other provinces, all with heavy Sunni Muslim populations, are Anbar, centered on the cities of Ramadi and Falluja; Saladin, with the troubled cities of Samarra and Bakuba; and Nineveh, with its capital at Mosul. But for the elections' credibility, Baghdad may matter most, because it is the capital, and because, with its intermingled population of Sunnis, Shiites, Christians and other groups, it is Iraq's most cosmopolitan city - thus, American officials believe, the most promising place for the civic norms represented by the election to take root. . On the bright spring day in April 2003 when marines helped topple Saddam's statue in Firdos Square, Baghdad, more than any other place in Iraq, was the place American commanders hoped to make a showcase for the benefits the invasion would bring. Instead, daily life here has become a deadly lottery, a place so fraught with danger that one senior American military officer acknowledged at a briefing last month that there was nowhere in the wide area of the city assigned to his troops that could be considered safe. . "I would definitely say it's enemy territory," said Colonel Steven Lanza, the New York-born commander of the 5th Brigade Combat Team, a unit of the 1st Cavalry Division that has responsibility for patrolling a wide area of southern Baghdad with a population of 1.3-million people. . The colonel added: "There is a major insurgency going on here. It is not a benign environment." . American military units in the city travel in heavily-armed convoys, gunners masked with helmets and goggles swiveling machine guns on expressways and along inner-city shopping streets to ward off attacks, and not infrequently opening fire, with civilian casualties. . In the week ending Sunday, according to figures kept by Western security companies with access to data compiled by the U.S. command, Baghdad was hit by seven suicide car bombings, 37 roadside bombs, and 52 insurgent attacks involving automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The attacks spread throughout the city, impacting on every major district. But bad as the week was - the suicide bombings alone killed at least 60 people, and injured more than 150 others - it was rated by the American command as only a preliminary to what might lie ahead. . Along with insurgent attacks, the city has seen a surge of criminal activity, including murders and kidnapping for ransom, that have undermined support for the Americans and all they represent - including the elections - as much as the war. . Hospital morgues are filled with unidentified bodies and body parts, many of them found floating in canals or abandoned, decomposing, on stretches of wasteland. There is hardly anybody in Baghdad who doesn't have a horror story to tell about children kidnapped for ransom and subsequently murdered. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. 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