Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Jo Wildings Iraq diary March 19th

Jo Wilding | 21.03.2003 08:56

describing Bagdhad on the 19th of march

The Day Before the War

Fourteen people live in Yasser's house in Saddam City:
his parents, his brothers and sisters, his aunt and
several cousins, nieces and nephews and his
grandmother. She is paralysed, and he gently lifted
her, sitting on her bed, propped her on pillows and
spoke with her. She says she's not scared of the war.

Yasser shares a room with his cousin Mustapha, a
student of physics at Baghdad University. The boys
have two posters on their wall: one of Manchester
United and one from the film Braveheart. "It's about
freedom," Mustapha explained. There is an easy
affection between them all: the younger children are
cuddled and stroked and there is pride in their voices
as they introduce one another. Yasser's mum says
they've been trying hard to make the kids feel safe
and to reassure them.

Zainab and the baby played in the car while Yasser
showed us the sacks of rice and flour they have stored
for the war: the food ration for March to July, and
the well at the front of the house in the chicken pen,
a walled enclosure with about eight birds who mainly
shuffle about in the hedges. They have a Kalashnikov
in the house for defence. I asked who they expected to
need to defend themselves against - Americans, the
Iraqi army or looters. A shrug. Anyone who threatens
their home.

The boys say they will carry on studying, though
Yasser's school and Mustapha's college are already
closed. Yasser's sister lives there with her husband,
who is studying translation, and her daughter Zainab.
The house is ramshackle from the outside, but within
it is spacious and comfortable - sofas occupy one
corner and two walls, while rugs and cushions frame
another wall. Filled with family members, it's the
warmest place I've ever seen. When we left they gave
us gifts - a handmade basket and a copper jug.

"Insha'Allah we will see you again soon, in a better
circumstance," Yasser's mother said, through Faadi
translating. They were gorgeous. I wanted to hold onto
every one of them, store up every minute in their home
and re run it a dozen times.

People living fourteen to a house in extended families
is common in Saddam City, which is why its population
is so dense. As well, Carel de Rooy from UNICEF said
that people have been moving into the district from
Shi'a villages all over the country, especially
throughout the duration of the sanctions, when the
rest of central and southern Iraq has been even poorer
than Baghdad. Consequently no one knows how many
people live here.

In Saddam City the shops were still open, unlike most
of Baghdad, and the market was busy with horses and
carts and people among the stalls with tattered raffia
shades over the goods. Traffic was light in Baghdad
and a 40-minute journey on an ordinary day took only
15 today.

Like Yasser, Thoraya wasn't at school today. She's 17,
born in 1985, during the war with Iran. She was five
years old in the last Gulf War. Her mum remembers both
her and her brother Usama being terrified and crying
during the bombing, and taking them into rooms with no
windows - sometimes sitting in the bathroom with them
- for fear of imploding glass. Thoraya's friend's
family's house collapsed in the bombing, killing
everyone except the father. The buildings now are in a
worse state than they were in 1991, Thoraya's dad
explained, because a lot have been weakened by
bombings and most people haven't had money to spare
for maintenance in twelve and a half years under
sanctions.

Thoraya loves Anthony Hopkins. Silence of the Lambs is
one of her favourite films and she likes Charlotte
Bronte as well, especially Jane Eyre. She writes poems
and has posters of Princess Di on her wall. Her dad
did a masters degree and PhD in chemistry at Essex
University and her mum lived there for two years after
marrying her dad, so the whole family speaks excellent
English, maintained by watching English language films
in the long years since they last met a native
speaker. "My Fair Lady" they know off by heart. Her
cousin is a translator at the airport, but as there
are no flights any more she wasn't at work.

Faroukh's school was open, but only the teachers were
inside, and Leila, the beautiful cleaner whose grey
hair shows just at the front beneath her scarf. A
crowd of his mates were at the gate clowning, hugging
each other, singing football chants and declaring AC
Milan to be the greatest. No, no, I assured them.
Brighton and Hove Albion were far better, if a little
less famous and wealthy. Then I stumbled over a mound
of sand in the road and gave them something to laugh
at.

"We don't know when we will see each other again or if
we will at all," said Faroukh with a shrug.

Drinking tea with a Lebanese photographer friend we
found ourselves the subject of attention from the
usual men in suits. He and Julia started discussing
the properties of his two cameras, the respective
merits of Lika and Nikon cameras, and our companions
got tired of us and went to look at the demonstration
passing the door - yet another on its way from the
coach drop off to the UN building. I long for the time
when the people can tear down those portraits, but my
soul aches with the bitter knowledge of all that the
US and UK have done to harm the people of Iraq over
twenty-odd years.

As if it was the city of Baghdad that was the problem.
As if it wasn't the idea that you can support and fund
and arm someone who you know minces his political
opponents and destroys whole towns of people and
that's OK because he's buying your weapons and selling
you oil and starting wars with your enemies, with your
help, not knowing you're helping the other side as
well, covertly. As if it wasn't the idea that once
that person is outside of your control you can besiege
the people of the entire country, denying them
adequate food, even despite a distribution system
"second to none" (UNOHCI) and after twelve and a half
years of suffering and death, because it didn't work,
you can flatten their country, "shock and awe" them
into surrendering with Cruise missiles.

Jeremy phoned and said the bombers were on their way.
It's tonight. Some people didn't believe it would be
tonight. The 48 hour deadline ends at 4am. Ahmed came
and knocked on the door of our apartment and told us
the same thing: the bombers are coming for us. He told
me he was sorry. He shook my hand, held my shoulder
and told me he was sorry.

A siren sounded and my heart flipped, but then
followed the familiar horn sound of a Red Crescent
ambulance. Going where, I wondered. What accident,
what illness could possibly befall you in the hour
before the war? It's 3:30 am.

Jo Wilding
- Homepage: www.bristolfoe.org.uk/wildfire/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech