Living dangerously

The Iraqi government's intentions may be right, but the reality of life for the students and inhabitants of the capital remains fraught with danger, writes Nermeen Al-Mufti in Baghdad

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Iraqi Interior Ministry commandos attend the scene after a bomb struck a commandos patrol in Baghdad

Having a security plan does not mean your problems are being solved, at least not as far as Iraqis are concerned. The country is still gripped by death, with more university professors falling victim to violence and with more bombings taking place all over the country, except in the north. The appointment of defence, interior, and national security ministers may have filled up vacant cabinet seats, but it did nothing to comfort students having to take their final exams in streets filled with horror.

Seif Ali, a high school student, said he has been working hard to get the grades that will qualify him for medical school: "But then we sit and take our tests while listening to the continual sound of bombing. With every bomb that goes off, I lose concentration. The electricity goes out during the test and I sweat onto my exam papers. Moreover, the questions are very hard, as if those who wrote the tests forget that we haven't finished the curriculum and often missed classes on account of the roadblocks."

Mohamed Adnan, an engineering student at Baghdad University, said, "On the second day of final exams, I saw a sign announcing the death of three fellow students killed by a car bomb in Al-Karrada. Another sign told us of the death of a professor in the mechanical engineering department. A third announced the death of a teaching assistant who had been working on his PhD. How do you expect me to perform well when death is around every corner?"

As more bodies and severed heads are found, US collateral fire continues to take its toll on Iraqi civilians. Last week, the occupation troops killed 14 members of one family in Al-Hashimiya in Baaquba as well as eight members of another family in Al-Karma, near Falluja. As the pictures flashed onto Iraqi and Arab television screens, US officials denied any knowledge of the two massacres. Once again, the Iraqis will have to wait until an American journalist writes about the two crimes, before the Pentagon takes any action.

Iraqis live in fear of the invisible hands that are trying to undermine whatever security the country may still have. "People don't want to talk anymore. Those who speak out, end up dead," said Abu Mustafa, who asked me to withhold his full name.

Ali Ismail lives in the vulnerable Al-Shurta neighbourhood in western Baghdad. He said, "Several Iraqi and US sources allege that Al-Qaeda has moved into Al-Adhamiya. That means this neighbourhood will be treated with the same harshness shown in Falluja and Talaafar and other cities similarly accused. The strange thing is that the same sources used to claim Al-Qaeda was hiding in Al-Dawra in southern Baghdad. Stranger still, those sources say that the Al-Qaeda leadership is in Al-Huweija, west of Kirkuk. You can imagine how many areas are still to be attacked, and how many dozens of people, even hundreds, will have to die."

Janan Ali is an expert in Iraqi domestic policies commented; " I don't know why the occupation forces and the new Iraqi forces insist on violence and forget the real reason young people are drawn to guns. The occupation forces and Iraqi security services are heavy-handed, and the harshness they use breeds violence."

After Al-Qaeda promised to avenge Al-Zarqawi's killing, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki has been trying to play down the whole Al-Zarqawi episode. Now he says his main quest is to achieve national unity. A local paper has published the draft of the "Project of Reconciliation and National Dialogue", which Al-Maliki has just approved. The project includes 19 items highlighting the government's intention to encourage dialogue.

According to the national reconciliation project, the government will form a higher body known as the National Agency for the Project of Reconciliation and National Dialogue. The agency will include representatives of the government and various clans and factions, as well as public figures. The government intends to organise a conference for religious scholars and another for clan leaders to seek their endorsement of national reconciliation efforts.

Iraqis wonder if the proposed agency will have better luck than others that have preceded it. This is a country that has had a plethora of commissions and committees, with little to show for their work. Many in Iraq still wonder what happened to the pictures that parliamentarian Mohammad Al-Dayni took in an Interior Ministry prison. Al-Dayni and others speak of torture and sexual abuse being common methods of extracting confessions. So far, there has been no investigation into the allegations.

The inhabitants of Al-Ramadi still live under siege. And the abduction of two US soldiers in Al-Yusufiya, 15 km south of Baghdad, does not augur well for the security and humanitarian situation in the country.