Casual Converstaion

A friend of mine just recently came back to Iraq and when I asked him about his journey from Baghdad to Najaf he spoke of a very interesting conversation he had with the driver. As he got into the car the driver played some Shia religious songs and as soon as he reached the outskirts of Baghdad he switched it to a pro-Moqtada tape.

One question led to another and it turned out the driver was an ex-commander of the Mehdi Army responsible for over 40 rebels in Baghdad. He spoke about the Mehdi Army and of the hard times Baghdadis went through during the "civil war". Regarding the Mehdi Army he said they could be grouped into three different categories:

1. The "real" Mehdi Army. Any Shia who fights to protect his home and his neighbourhood from the Sunni insurgents. No one needs an identity card to prove himself worthy, any Shia who fights against the Sunnis is considered part of this army. They were advised by and in constant contact with the political Sadrists. Moqtada would occasionally pay them surprise visists to encourage them and increase morale amongst their ranks.

2. The "criminal" Mehdi Army. Many youths enjoyed the power and privileges that came with joining the Mehdi Army and used them in order to steal, kidnap and kill for the sake of money. The 'real' Mehdi Army would only discipline them if they committed crimes against fellow Shia. Moqtada is "innocent" of these people who use his name to further their personal agendas.

3. The "Iranian" Mehdi Army. He joined them and left after only 3 weeks because he "hated" them. They could do what they pleased with no checks and balances in place. Many cells operated unilaterally with no communication or coordination with the 'real' Mehdi Army and they would bypass the quasi-military chain of command that was in place. They claimed they were in constant contact with Moqtada's office in Najaf.

One of the many tragic stories he narrated was how his 16 year old nephew was kidnapped by the Sunni insurgents in his neighbourhood. After finding out who the kidnappers were he used his position in the Mehdi Army to take over a police checkpoint in the area and then kidnapped the 19 year old nephew of the ringleader of the Sunni gang.

He called and told the Sunni he had his nephew and that if he ever wanted to see him alive again he had to release his nephew immediately. They said they were sorry but they had just executed the 16 year old kid. He hung up, cocked his pistol and shot dead the 19 year old boy. He felt no closure, no relief, no regret, nothing. Just something that had to be done. Two more innocent lives lost to the Shia-Sunni sectarian war that once plagued Baghdad and the rest of Iraq.

Tackling Kirkuk

Kirkuk was founded some 4,500 years ago by the Hurrians, it was then conquered by the Assyrians, then it was overrun by the Iranians, then by the Turks, then the Arabs, and now it is part of Iraq. Kurds and Assyrians have lived there since time immemorial and Arabs and Turkmen have also lived there for centuries... So who does Kirkuk belong to? Every time I think about this question the words of Orlando Bloom (Kingdom of Heaven) come to mind:

"What is Jerusalem? Your [Christian] holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy?...The Wall? The Mosque? The Sepulchre? Who has claim? No one has claim…All have claim!".

So what to do with a city that can rightfully be 'claimed' by more than 3 large ethnic groups? Thankfully the Mehdi Army militiamen have gone back to petty crime, brick-laying, garbage cleaning e.t.c and the insurgency in Iraq is in the last throes, this time its for real and not even the democrats or al-Qaida can deny it. That leaves everyone else in Iraq with the chance to complain about the electricity or heat, and of course the future of Kirkuk.

The issue shouldn't revolve around "historical claim" or "demographics", because on those grounds Iraq could annex Kuwait (again) and send its armed forces to south-western Iran to turn Khuzistan (Arabistan) into the 20th province. Even though many tribes in both Kuwait and Ahwaz have historically always been part of those in Basra they live in separate countries, and that is tough luck for Iraq. A large chunk of an oil-rich region was simply taken away from Iraq and given to a ruling family (al-Sabahs). When there is a ceremony on the other side of the river many tribesmen in both Basra and Ahwaz casually (and illegally) cross over to take part. For them the 'border' is nothing more than an inconvenience.

The problem with Kirkuk is that no one is willing to compromise. Its not just about the labeling of the city as 'Kurdish' or 'Turkmen' or even whose ancestors historically lived there first. The issue of Kirkuk revolves around oil...all one million barrels of it that is pumped out every day.

The Kurds say thousands of Arab families relocated there will negatively impact the elections, the Turkmen say they don't want to be administered by the Kurds (Turks control Kurdish land in Turkey and they don't want the reverse to happen in Iraq) and the Arabs want to be part of the 'Arab nation'.

A census/referendum would have been something the Kurds would have gladly accepted 40 or 50 years ago, but bar splitting up the city along ethnic lines (as the rest of Iraq is starting to get in shape there must be hundreds of tones of redundant concrete slabs) and giving each ethnic group a slice of the pie I can't see a solution for Kirkuk in the short-run and I pray things do not get out of hand, because if they did...well let's not even go there.

Sha'baniya

Yesterday I attended the festival for one of the 111 Shia holidays in Iraq because I don't get the opporunity to visit Kerbala on the 15th Sha'ban every year (this year it coincided with 16th August). The 80km journey from Najaf to Kerbala took an excruciating 4 hours to complete. You don't need to be a boffin to work out that means an average speed of 20km/h. I wouldn't normally have been able to cope with that when the temperature drives you mad and there is no A/C but everytime I look out of the window I see people walking on foot to Kerbala and think to myself if these people can walk for days on end in this heat the least I can do is sit and bear the journey in a bus.

People walk from Najaf 3 to 4 days in advance to reach Kerbala by the 15th, but tens of thousands more walk much further from cities like Nassiriya and Basra. The occasion is the birthday of the 12th Imam, Mohammed al-Mehdi and every year (since 2003) millions flock to the city of Kerbala to celebrate.

There are small mosques built along all the highways in southern Iraq for the sole purpose of catering for the needs of pilgrims who travel to cities like Najaf, Kerbala and Baghdad to celebrate and mourn the 12 Shia Imams (and Prophet), but even these mosques become obsolete from the sheer numbers and people que up for at least an hour to use the shower facilities before trodding on their way. Where ever you look you can see people clapping, laughing and dancing.

When we reached the outskirts of the city the vast numbers became more apparant and we would spend a good quarter of an hour before we could move a few feet. In Kerbala itself it was a sight I have never seen before, at least 1 million people (Al-Furat put the numbers at 4 million but I think a more accurate estimate would be 1.5 to 2 million) making their way towards the shrines of Imam al-Hussain and his brother Abbas.

Large crowds would clap and dance to the chant ('cha ween al-irhab halyowm') "So where is terrorism today?" and for a moment I actually thought whether the chance of being killed gives these people an incentive to come because everytime I thought about a bomb going off adrenaline would rush through my veins and it just felt extra special because simply by going you are giving the terrorists an open invitation to attack. For the terrorists, killing a large crowd of blasphemous Shia would be something that would merit not only heaven but also an all-you-can-eat open-buffet lunch with the Prophet himself.

In Kerbala, thousands of well-wishers line the streets who want nothing but to serve the people who have come to visit. They offer everything from free food to foot massages and you can even see people standing by the kerb tearing apart cardboard boxes and waving them at passersby to try and cool them (a noble attempt but I can testify it does nothing to reduce the effect of burning in the Mesopotamian desert). Rose water is also sprinkled non-stop at all the people who pass by. On that day everyones name is "pilgrim" and Shias believe serving a visitor of an Imam carries great reward in the hereafter so everyone goes above and beyond the call of duty to make sure the people are comfortable. Even battle-hardened soldiers are afraid to upset the pilgrims, they can be constantly heard saying "sorry" and "please".

The Iraqi security forces deserve great praise for their fantastic conduct and for providing security to the visitors. I don't know how they manage to do it. They search every single person that enters Kerbala and each person is searched more than 5 times before they even reach within a km of the shrine, where there are further searches that are carried out by police, soldiers and even some of the locals who give a helping hand to the security teams. Red lasers could be spotted flashing on the rooftops as sniper teams took position in most of the surrounding buildings. The security forces were on high alert for the fear of both Sunni and Shia terrorists. Last year on this occasion members of the Mehdi Army wreaked havoc near the two holy shrines.

Inside the shrine itself it was like a Tokyo train during rush hour but only this 'train' is a several thousand square foot mosque. I am not exaggerating when I say once you are inside it is extremely difficult to chose where you go, where ever there is a gap ahead, you are immediately pushed there by the people behind. If you decide to break away from the current you have to be physically strong and pray you are met with minimal resistance. The elderly are guarded by their sons who form a human shield around them and the children are carried on the shoulders of their fathers.

All the hotels in Kerbala are pre-booked days in advance and thousands end up sleeping on the street, where ever they can find a place to lay a mattress they do so and if they don't have any they are provided by the locals. Special groups ('mawakib') from various cities compete with one another to provide better services for the visitors but in my honest opinion none are as flamboyant (and generous) as the groups who come from Najaf. The groups bring with them a platform stage that plays religious songs over loudspeakers and provide a live performance by a recitor ('radood'). They raise huge flags that indicate who they are and where they have come from, decorate the stage with large pictures of the Imams and bring with them Harry Potter style cauldrons to cook food (speciality is 'qeema' a lentil/chickpea curry) for thousands of people. Less well-off groups set up small stands and offer water and drinks to quench the thirst of the pilgrims.

When we entered Kerbala thousands of people had already finished and were on their way home and when we left Kerbala (well past midnight) throngs of people continued to arrive to celebrate till the morning. Those who didn't have a car to return would desperately try to find spaces on top of buses or by clinging onto trucks and vans. Most of the taxi drivers would help by refusing to take any money.

Nancy Ajram in Kufa

Things just arn't the same as they were in Kufa. When the US and Iraqi armies battled Moqtada's army in 2004 most of the people that wandered the streets of Kufa were militiamen. Even in times of peace this town was a bastion for the Mehdi Army. Historically, Kufa has always been the heart of the Sadrists in southern Iraq.

The local police were either sympathetic to the Sadrists, indifferent when it came to their crimes or Sadrists themselves. In many instances the police would man checkpoints together with the militia. If the Sadrists needed police cars or equipment they would either steal them from the police or be given them by the police. Anyone wearing jeans, having the wrong haircut or playing music loud from their cars would be humiliated, taken out of their cars and beaten with sticks in the middle of the street.

Those days are long gone. Now commandos and Rapid Intervention Forces patrol the streets alongside the police, there is no room for the Sadrists to breathe. Yesterday we had to drive over a mile to find a space to park alongside the river bank. The river was lined with families and teenagers laughing, enjoying dinner, drinking tea, playing backgammon or smoking sheesha. Every few minutes a car would drive past with Arabic music on full volume blaring out of the windows and there was not a single Sadrist there to shut them up. Some of the older men even encourage the teenagers, with beads swinging in their hands they shout "hele, hele" as they hear the sweet voice of Nancy Ajram.

8/8/08

Baghdad looks so beautiful from the sky, the twists and turns of the Tigris, the bridges and inter-twining highways engineered to perfection make this city so special. I'm normally asleep during take-offs and landings but this time I couldn't stop staring. It looks so peaceful it takes a while for it to sink in that this place has been ravaged by war/terrorism for the last 5 years. It's exactly 20 years to the day of the end of the Iraq-Iran war and its hard to imagine what Baghdad could have been without that war, without Saddam and without the Ba'ath Party.

I arrived to Baghdad just before sunset and from inside the plane the city looked busy with cars all over the place but by the time I got out of the airport it was 8:30pm and the city turned into a ghost town. The only other cars I saw, except for the few exceptions, where military or police. The one thing I immediately noticed was there was a lot less soldiers on the street since the last time I was here 4 months ago. This is a good sign of course, less soldiers means a less tense city and every checkpoint from Baghdad to Najaf was manned by polite soldiers who were upbeat and always trying to crack a joke.

I am used to wearing a seat-belt as soon as I enter any car but decided this was a bad idea in Iraq after I was made fun of by every soldier who saw me. I took it off quickly after a soldier just outside the airport said "It's nice to see someone abiding by the law for a change" because abiding by the law in Iraq is a tell-tale sign that you are a stranger. The soldier just laughed and waved us through.

In Latifiya, and after finding out I had come from London, one of the soldiers leaned against the window and with all seriousness said "People run away from Iraq in the summer and you have come here? Don't you know we are crazy here? Here we kill each other for nothing, so what are you doing here?". I said "London is depressing, cold, cloudy and its always raining so I came here to get some sun". His shifty eyes darted around the car for a few seconds and he then waved us through.

The sun is something you cannot hide away from in Iraq, walking in the streets when its 115 degrees F is like walking into a sauna but worse because you are wearing clothes, every breeze is like a blow-dryer on max heat blowing in your face. I just cant understand how those soldiers stand for hours with all that gear on. At midnight the temperature drops just below 100 degrees F and is the only time you can take a shower because the water isn't as hot, it burns for a few seconds but your skin gets used to the heat. There is electricity around 12 hours a day in Najaf and you can pay around 90,000 ID ($75) a month to get an extra 12 hours from large generators. Even with the electricity the heat is unbearable unless you stay cooped up in the same room for 24 hours.

The security forces present in Najaf have dropped by more than half since April and in general the city feels much safer.