|
Looking For Trouble |
|
April 2 |
|
(Published April 3) UNTIL the bombs began to fall on Basra, the man sitting in the low, white building on the western edge of the neighbouring town of Az Zubayr had been a teacher, struggling to educate the young people of Iraq's second city and struggling to keep a roof over the heads of his young family. He worked long hours, 6am to 6pm, for little money and less thanks, lucky at least to be an educated man with a chance of finding a job, lucky enough to be able to afford to build a couple of extra rooms on to the two-room building that served as home for himself, his wife and three young children. But he would never be as lucky as some, those who joined the Baath Party or those who had always supported the regime of Saddam Hussein. Only they enjoyed the benefits of Saddam's largesse. Only they could buy the meat and vegetables and eggs he and his family craved, only they could fill the top jobs and earn the big salaries and collect the perks that made life in Iraq bearable. And when the bombs started falling and the Fedayeen took over the schools and the hospitals and the mosques, he knew it would only be a matter of time before there came a knock on his door, a rifle thrust into his hands and he would be told to fight. So he ran. With his family, he ran out of the city towards the bridges over the Shatt al-Basra canal, like the 1,000 who fled the city on another day, running from the guns of their own soldiers, past the British tanks and on to Az Zubayr, where the British had set up camp and where he believed they could be safe. He went back, to try to save what he could, but it was too late. They had lost everything. Now, nearly three weeks after the bombing began, he is trying to start again, frightened of what the regime will do to him if it regains control, frightened of what will happen to his family. But there is an anger there, too, anger at what has been done to his country, anger at the people he says have stolen Iraq from the Iraqi people. "The Baath Party has occupied our country and destroyed it," he says. "It is the Baath Party that has done all this, they put us in this situation to control us, to force us to go to the militia and the army. "The Baathists in Basra are making checkpoints where they stop you and make you fight. I left Basra because I did not want to be a Fedayeen. If I stay, they will give me a gun and force me to fight for them. They will give me a gun and stand at my back and if I don't go, they will shoot me, so I will die sooner or later anyway." Those who refuse to fight have been killed. He knows of three already dead, shot in the head for refusing to pick up a gun. "You can't say you won't go, you will be a traitor," he says. He will not give his name, too scared, but he is happy to talk, in his heavily-accented English, about the times before the British and Americans came, and about the people he blames for destroying his country. "Ninety per cent of people hate the Baath Party but it is a psychological thing now. The Baath poisons are in our blood and in our minds and we can't eliminate them." Conditions inside Basra have deteriorated since the start of the coalition attacks, but even before the war began, he recalls, life was hardly worth living. "Education is getting lower because people leave schools and universities to find work," he says. "Even the educated people like me have a low level of life. Salaries are very low, maybe $ 20 or $ 30 a month for a professional person. "We don't have good houses and the families are large. There are often 20 people living together, including the children and the older people. Because of the size of the families, the education is lower. Life gets worse. "People are forced to work in addition to their normal work. You see the tomato carts here? The main crop is tomatoes and we deliver them to other cities and sell them, or work in garages to repair cars. That is what I did. We are forced to do that, work from early morning to night, six to six we say here, that is the rule here, but there is not much extra money from that either. "We want to run our own lives and to have items for our homes. We don't have extra items - not every house has a refrigerator and air conditioning is only for the rich. We have radio and TV, but that is all. "There are two rooms in a normal house with 15, 16, 17, 18 people in that house. It is not a home, it is somewhere to stay. We feel misery." But the Baath Party has been clever in the way that it has imposed its grip, using food as a potent weapon. "The ration card is the main thing here. We depend upon it. It is as necessary as the water and the air," he says. "They give us all we need of foodstuffs. If they want anything from anyone they don't give you your rations, so to maintain your family's life you have to do what they want. "We depend upon the family system and the tribe. Your family's life is more important than yours. You must keep their lives and to do that you must do what they want." Each person receives a ration card which must last them ten days, he explains. It entitles them to 8kg of flour, 2kg of rice, 1.5kg of cooking oil, 2kg of sugar, 0.25kg of powdered milk and detergent powder. Anything else - meat, eggs, vegetables - is seen as unnecessary or is reserved only for the wealthy. But at least the water in the city still works and there is electricity, he says. There are two kinds of Baathists, the teacher says, those who were always with the party and those who have been forced to join to survive. "The original Baathists are the heads of companies, ministries, universities, schools. Those people who are forced to be Baathist are teachers, doctors. "They force teachers to teach the children what they say. We have to say that America was built on the skulls of red Indians and if America comes then Iraq will be built on the skulls of Iraqis. They force us to teach our pupils that the British will occupy their country and steal their oil and do bad things to their families. They use religion to tell us things they want us to know. "The ones who are forced to be Baathists are at the bottom. The others have the better jobs, the better salaries, the better gifts. It is only the Baath Party that rules the country." Before the war started, many hoped that the arrival of troops from Britain and the United States at the entrances to the city would convince the people to rise up again, as they did in the last Gulf war. But the people of Basra have remembered what happened when they did rise up, and no help came, and many died. This time they are waiting to be sure that someone will come to their aid. "The Baath Party has warned us not to rise up and co-operate with the British. They say Saddam Hussein will not be eliminated, that the Baath Party will return and you would be treated as a traitor and killed. "People would like to co-operate with the British but the Baath Party is in our minds and blood and Saddam Hussein is not yet eliminated. "If Baghdad falls, then we will turn, but the Baath Party is not eliminated yet." He still fears the Fedayeen, believes they are operating even in the areas controlled by the British troops. "The young men in Iraq are not like the young people in the US and Britain. They don't have contact with the world, how other people live. The Baath Party has controlled them since they were children and filled their minds, their education is low, and they are given gifts. These are the reasons they still fight." The British have been pounding Basra for days, encircling the city. This morning, they destroyed six tanks which fired on the British positions. US planes dropped 16 JDAM bombs, 2,000lb of high explosive guided to their targets by satellite navigation, on to Fedayeen positions. Up to 200 Fedayeen may have died, they say, but still the militia are holding out, hiding among the houses and institutions, emerging in their civilian clothes to take on the British before slipping away into the crowd. "They use the term 'hit and run' - they hide between houses, in their own houses, they appear as normal citizens," he says. "The Baath Party has stored weapons between the houses. That is common. The schools have been converted to military regimes. Everything has stopped since 17 March. The children are in their houses, the universities have closed, we are afraid to go to the hospital. What if military equipment was stored in it? "They have converted our schools, our hospitals, our mosques, they hide inside them as normal people. We won't forget the Baathists because of these bad things." When the bombing started, people were afraid, he says. "We were scared at first, we thought that it would be a big battle that would destroy all our buildings and kill us, but now we are beginning to trust the armies." He knows of four families who have died in the bombing - killed, he says, because their houses were next to places where the Baath Party had stored weapons. But he does not blame the armies encircling his city. "We feel that the British and the American army is better than the Baathists. Our old people know the British, they say the British are better than the Baathists." When the British arrived on the edge of the city, he gathered up his family and fled over the bridge towards Az Zubayr. "I was thinking only of my family's safety," he says. "When we stayed in Basra we were afraid. We got in our car and drove to the bridge. We were stopped by the tanks and we walked towards them and they checked us and we went across the bridge. "I went back after. I was afraid of people stealing my things but I was more afraid of the regime so I left everything to come to Az Zubayr to feel safer. I feel safer here, I trust these people."
|
|
(Original copy) UNTIL the bombs began to fall on Basra, the man sitting in the low white building on the western edge of the nearby town of Az Zubayr had been a teacher, struggling to educate the young people of Iraq's second city, stuggling to keep a roof over the heads of his young family. He worked long hours, 6am to 6pm, for little money and less thanks, lucky at least to be an educated man with a chance of finding a job, lucky enough to be able to afford to build a couple of extra rooms on to the two room building that served as home for himself, his wife and three young children. But he would never be as lucky as some, those who had given up the fight against the Ba'ath party and joined their ranks or those who had always supported the regime of Saddam Hussein. Only they enjoyed the benefits of Saddam's largesse, only they could buy the meat and vegetables and eggs he and his family craved, only they could fill the top jobs and earn the big salaries and collect the little perks that made life in Iraq bearable. And when the bombs started falling and the Fedayeen took over the schools and the hospitals and the mosques, he knew that it would only be a matter of time before there came a knock on his door and a rifle would be thrust into his hands and he would be told to fight. So he ran. He gathered up his family and ran, out of the city towards the bridges over the Shatt al Basra canal, past the British tanks and on to Az Zubayr, where the British had set up camp and where he believed they could be safe. He went back, to try to save what he could, but it was too late. They had lost everything. Now, nearly three weeks after the bombing began, he is trying to start again, frightened of what the regime will do to him if it regains control, frightened of what will happen to his family. But there is an anger there too, anger at what has been done to his country, anger at the people he says have stolen Iraq from the Iraqi people. "The Ba'ath party has occupied our country and destroyed it," he says. "It is the Ba'ath party that has done all this, they put us in this situation to control us, to force us to go to the militia and the army to force us to go as Fedayeen. "The Ba'athists in Basra are making check points where they stop you and make you fight. I left Basra because I did not want to be a Fedayeen. If I stay they will give me a gun and force me to fight for them. They will give me a gun and stand at my back and if I don't go they will shoot me, so I will die sooner or later anyway." Those who refuse to fight have been killed, he says. He knows of three already dead, shot in the head for refusing to pick up a gun. "You can't say you won't go, you will be a traitor," he says. He will not give his name, too scared, but he is happy to talk, in his heavily-accented English, about the times before the British and Americans came and about the people he blames for destroying his country. "Ninety per cent of people hate the Ba'ath party but it is a psychological thing now, the Ba'ath poisons are in our blood and in our minds and we can't eliminate them." Conditions inside Basra have deteriorated since the start of the coalition attacks, but even before the war began, he says, life was hardly worth the living. "Eduction is getting lower because people leave schools and universities to find work," he says. "Even the educated people like me have a low level of life. Salaries are very low, maybe $20 or $30 a month for a professional person. "We don't have good houses and the families are large. There are often 20 people living together, including the children and the older people. Because of the size of the families, the education is lower. Life gets worse. "People are forced to work in addition to their normal work. You see the tomato carts here? The main crop is tomatoes and we deliver them to other cities and sell them, or work in garages to repair cars. That is what I did. We are forced to do that, work from early morning to night, six to six we say here, that is the rule here, but there is not much extra money from that either. "We want to run our own lives and to have items for our homes. We don't have extra items - not every house has a refrigerator and air conditioning is only for the rich. We have radio and TV but that is often all. "There are two rooms in a normal house with 15, 16, 17, 18 people in that house. It is not a home, it is somewhere to stay. We feel misery." But the Ba'ath party has been clever in the way it has imposed its grip, using the need for food as a potent weapon against its own people. "The ration card is the main thing here. We depend upon it. It is as necessary as the water and the air," he says. "They give us all we need of foodstuffs. If they want anything from anyone they don't give you your rations so to maintain your family's life you have to do what they want. "We depend upon the family system and the tribe. Your family's life is more important than yours. You must keep their lives and to do that you must do what they want." Each person receives a ration card which must last them 10 days, he says. It entitles them to 8kg of flour, 2kg of rise, 1.5kg of cooking oil, 2kg of sugar, 0.25kg of powdered milk and detergent powder. Anything else - meat, eggs, vegetables, is seen as unnecessary or is reserved only for the rich. But at least the water in the city still works and there is electricity, he says. There are two kinds of Ba'athists, he says, those who were always with the party and those who have been forced to join to survive. "The original Ba'athists are the heads of companies, ministries, universities, schools. Those people who are forced to be Ba'athist are teachers, doctors. "They force teachers to teach the children what they say. We have to say that America was built on the skulls of red indians and if America comes then Iraq will be built on the skulls of Iraqis. They force us to teach our pupils that the British will occupy their country and steal their oil and do bad things to their families. They use religion to tell us things they want us to know. "The ones who are forced to be Ba'athists are at the bottom. The others have the better jobs, the better salaries, the better gifts. It is only the Ba'ath party that rules the country." Before the war started, many hoped that the arrival of British and American troops at the entrances to the city would convince the people to rise up again, as they did in the last Gulf War. But the people of Basra have rememebred what happened when they did rise up, and no help came, and many died. This time they are waiting to be sure that someone will come to their aid. "The Ba'ath party has warned us not to rise up and cooperate with the British. They say Saddam Hussein will not be eliminated, that the Ba'ath party will return and you would be treated as a traitor and killed. "People would like to cooperate with the British but the Ba'ath party is in our minds and blood and Saddam Hussein is not yet eliminated. "If Baghdad falls, then we will turn, but the Ba'ath party is not eliminated yet." He still fears the Fedayeen, believes they are still operating even in the areas controlled by the British troops, young men eager to fight on in the name of the party. "The young men in Iraq are not like the young people in the US and Britain. They don't have contact wth the world, how other people live. The Ba'ath party has controlled them since they were children and filled their minds and their education is low and they are given gifts. These are the reasons they still fight." The British have been pounding Basra for days, encircling the city, probing the defences. Only this morning they destroyed six tanks which had emerged from sand bunkers to fire on the British positions. US planes dropped 16 JDAM bombs, 2000lb of high explosive guided to their targets by satellite navigation, onto Fedayeen positions. Up to 200 Fedayeen may have died, they say, but still the militia are holding out, hiding among the houses and institutions, emerging in their civilian clothes to take on the British before slipping away into the crowd. "They use the term hit and run - they hide between houses, in their own houses, they appear as normal citizens," he says. "The Ba'ath party has stored weapons between the houses. That is common. The schools have been converted to military regimes. Everything has stopped since March 17. The children are in their houses, the universities have closed, we are afraid to go the hospital. What if military equipment was stored in it? "They have converted our schools, our hospitals, our mosques, they hide inside them as normal people. I feel misery. We won't forget the Ba'athists because of these bad things." When the bombing started, people were afraid, he says, but now they are beginning to accept the attacks. "We were scared at first, we thought that it would be a big battle that would destroy all our buildings and kills us but now we are beginning to trust the armies because the rate of errors is reducing." He knows of four families who have died in the bombing, killed, he says, because their houses were next to places where the Ba'ath party had stored weapons. But he does not blame the armies encircling his city. "We feel that the British and the American army is better than the Ba'athists. Our old people know the British, they say the British are better than the Ba'athists." When the British arrived on the edge of the city, he gathered up his family and fled over the bridge towards Az Zubaya. "I was thinking only of my family's safety. When we stayed in Basra we were afraid. We got in our car and drove to the bridge. We stopped by the tanks and we walked towards them and they checked us and we went across the bridge and we found another car to take us and we came here. "I went back after, I was afraid of people stealing my things but I was more afraid of the regime so I left everything to come to Az Zubayr to feel safer. I feel safer here, I trust these people. "If I had stayed they would force me to say what they want but now they can't force me to do what I don't want to do. "I don't have a house or a good salary, I see them stealing my country. How can I stand with them?"
|
|
(News copy published April 3) BRITISH troops have been involved in heavy fighting around the southern Iraqi city of Basra as they step up their campaign there. Fedayeen militia were targeted by overnight bombing raids, in which 16 JDAM bombs - 2,000lb devices guided to their targets using global positioning satellite technology - were dropped on the city, but there was no official confirmation of casualty figures. British artillery was also in action and tanks of the Queen's Dragoon Guards engaged and destroyed six Iraqi tanks which had been firing on British positions. The tanks are believed to have been previously concealed behind defensive sand berms. British troops also came under fire from mortar positions inside the city. British military commanders say they are prepared to wait for the right moment to enter Basra rather than risk heavy casualties in a direct assault while resistance is still strong. People who have fled have told troops that the militia has taken over schools, hospitals and even mosques and maintained a tight grip on the city. The feeling on the ground is that the British battle groups would rather wait until the fall of Baghdad, which could be enough to convince the civilian population to turn on the Iraqi authorities in Iraq's second city. However, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers has now established a bridgehead in the north of Basra and raids are continuing to test the strength of the defending forces. British commanders, buoyed by the success of the humanitarian aid effort in the nearby town of Az Zubayr, are keen to get aid into Basra. Water was restored to most parts of Az Zubayr yesterday, the day after the commanding officer of the Black Watch, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Riddell -Webster, led the first foot patrol into the town to speak to the people and assure them military engineers would restore services. But officials say they are still wary of the threat from suicide bombers, and that has now been identified as the main danger to British troops in the area outside Basra. Captain Rob Sandford, with the Black Watch, said there was evidence to suggest that people had been promised money for their families if they were prepared to strap bombs to their bodies to blow up themselves and British troops. Meanwhile, the capture of five Iraqi cruise missiles by British forces patrolling the south of the country represents a "significant" swipe at Saddam's military capability, a weapons expert said. The United States' Central Command revealed that UK forces made the find near Az Zubayr airport as part of their efforts to secure the Al Faw peninsula and the Rumaila oilfields. At a briefing in Qatar, Brigadier General Vince Brooks said the Iraqi missiles were of the Styx variety. "They can be fired into Kuwaiti territory or against ships that are in the north Arabian Gulf," he said. At the weekend, a missile, apparently fired from southern Iraq fell into the sea and exploded near a major shopping centre in Kuwait City, but caused no serious injuries and little damage. It was the closest a missile had come to Kuwait City since the war began, although others have been intercepted by the US Patriot missile system. Duncan Lennox, the editor of Jane's Strategic Weapon Systems, said the Styx missile was originally designed and built in Russia in the 1950s. The Russians then exported it to China, where they built their own version and called it the Silkworm missile. The range of the missile was then increased by the Chinese who called it a Seersucker. "Then these were sold to Iraq in the early 1980s and then the Iraqis increased the range by putting extra fuel tanks and they called them the Faw missile - after the Al Faw peninsula where they were kept," Mr Lennox said. The missiles have three different ranges up to 125 miles and were used against Iran in their war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988. "We don't know how many of these missiles they have got. They probably had around 50 in 1991, but they may have got some more from other places. "North Korea also make them so they could have topped up their supplies." Mr Lennox said the seizure of the missiles was a "significant" blow to Saddam Hussein's troops as it was probably one of the most powerful weapons in their arsenal. He said it was difficult to put a price on the Styx missiles, although they were probably not very expensive compared with the US forces' Tomahawks. Mr Lennox estimated their cost at around £63,000. "They are nowhere near as powerful as the Tomahawk. Their maximum range is 200km, whereas a Tomahawk can travel for 1,700km. "These are old missiles, designed in the 1950s, certainly pretty slow and probably not that accurate," he said.
|
|
(Original news copy) BRITISH troops have been involved in heavy fighting around the southern Iraqi city of Basra as they step up their campaign against the city. Fedayeen militia were targeted by overnight bombing raids, in which 16 JDAM bombs - 2000lb devices guided to their targets using global positioning satellite technology - were dropped on the city, but there was no official confirmation of casualty figures. British artillery was also in action against the city and tanks of the Queen's Dragoon Guards engaged and destroyed six Iraqi tanks which had been firing on British positions. The tanks are believed to have previously been concealed behind defensive sand berms. British troops also came under fire from mortar positions inside the city. British military commanders say they are prepared to wait for the right moment to enter the city rather than risk heavy casualties in a direct assault while resistance is still strong. People who have fled Basra have told troops that the militia have taken over schools, hospitals and even mosques and maintained a tight grip on the city. The feeling on the ground is that the British battle groups would rather wait until the fall of Baghdad, which could be enough to convince the civilian population to turn on the Iraqi authorities in the city. But the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers has now established a bridgehead in the north of Basra and raids are continuing to test out the strength of the defending forces. British commanders, buoyed by the success of the humanitarian aid effort in the nearby town of Az Zubayr, are keen to get aid into Basra. Water was restored to most parts of Az Zubayr yesterday, the day after the commanding officer of the Black Watch, Lt Col Mike Riddell-Webster, led the first foot patrol into the town to speak to the local people and assure them that British military engineers would help restore services. But British officials say they are still wary of the threat from suicide bombers, and that has now been identified as the main threat to British troops in the area outside Basra. Captain Rob Sandford, with the Black Watch, said there was evidence to suggest that people had been promised money for their families if they were prepared to strap bombs to their bodies to blow up themselves and British troops
|