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Looking For Trouble |
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April 7 |
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(Original copy) FOR a city into which a foreign army had just swept and around which the intermittent sound of explosions indicated that sporadic fighting was continuing, Basra was yesterday managing to achieve a remarkable degree of normality. Traffic was flowing along the city's streets, people were out and about and shops were open. Only the occassional sound of gunfire and the odd wrecked building gave any indication that this was a city which had held out for weeks against the surrounding British forces. Of the regular Iraqi army, there was no sign. The naval base on the Shatt al Arab canal was abandoned, a solitary tug left at its moorings, cargo container after cargo container of rockets and mines and other ammunition left lying open and abandoned. And the militia? What had become of the threatened backlash overnight? Nobody knew. There were still reports coming in from the south of the city of fighting but in the north and centre, there was barely a sign of trouble. From the south came claims that the man brought in to bolster the defence fo the city, the man known as Chemical Ali, was dead and that his body had been found, but they remained unconfirmed. Troops moving into the more affluent centre of the city reported that their reception was "extremely benign" and that they were encountering virtually no resistance. Instead of facing attack from all sides, soldiers from the Black Watch battle group at least were able to concentrate on finding somewhere from where they could consolidate and affirm their control of the city. Major Douggie Hay, whose D company had been brought into the fighting the day before when it became clear that resistance was crumbling, said he found the entire situation surreal. After weeks of nibbling away at the edges, testing out the strength of the defences, they had simply strolled in. "I was surprised, I thought there would be more opposition, although it is clearly not over yet," he said. "I was expecting more to happen in our locations and there was nothing of any note. I think we were all staggered by yesterday - it was a momentous day." They did not have it quite as easy as he made out, but after the heavy fighting they had faced in the nearby town of Az Zubayr, they considered that they had got off lightly. "In the courwse of securing the naval base we encountered some RPG teams who engaged us. They were almost opposite the base, down a sidestreet, so we hit them. They missed but we didn't." Among those sweeping through the city, there was an almost palpable sense of disappointment, that this citadel which had held out for so long could be quite so ordinary. In the end, it seemed, no-one had really wanted to stay on to fight. Everywhere there were abandoned bunkers and weapons discarded by the soldiers who had decided to give up without firing a shot. In the naval base, containers belonging to companies from around the world - Sea Containers Limited from Hamilton in Bermuda, Marubeni Corporation from Toyko - lay open, filled with weapons from countries such as Jordan and Britain. Rifle rounds were scattered across the broken concrete, NBC kit had been abandoned. On the streets of the city people were going about their business, sometimes pausing to wave at the soldiers, others not even turning round to see the tanks rolling past. There were plentiful sports facilities with their large floodlights by far the tallest structures around, and some quite ornate public and private buildings, but there was also plenty of evidence of a population living in abject poverty. "It's sad to see the state of the country, " said Douggie Hay. "This is 20 years of neglect but what is worse is that people have been living like this for such a period of time. "It is really demoralising - you see the locals from the slum areas scavenging on the rubbish tips and water from god knows where." With poverty endemic, looting was inevitable. All around the city people could be seen pushing carts loaded with whatever they had been able to grab, from large items of furniture to pieces of scrap metal. D company watched in amazement yesterday morning as three men who had removed six planks of wood from the naval base dropped them into the Shatt al Arab, climbed on top and proceeded to paddle away across the canal. Many of those people seemed genuinely happy to see the army rolling past, laughing and joking even as they were stopped to be frisked at the checkpoints into and out of the city. Major Andy Docherty, an Arabic speaker who had already been out speaking to people in the streets, said they seemed genuinely pleased to welcome the British in. "I spoke to people about their initial impression of us and I must admit I was expecting it to be quite positive but it was very positive indeed," he said. "People were much more willing than in Az Zubayr to come forward and speak to us, they have been very friendly. "A lot of the older ones remembered the British from their involvment in the oil companies and were really pleased to see us. They were asking how long we were going to stay. We asked them how long they would like us to stay and some of them said as long as two years. "I didn't meet anyone who was not positive. They said they were glad to see the militia go. They said that as soon as we moved forward the militia moved back." Even on the day of the advance into Basra British troops were reporting that local people had been coming forward to point out the hiding places and names of militia members and Major Docherty said that trend had continued. "They are very very anti the regime and verbally abusive about Saddam Hussein and the Baath party and Chemical Ali and everything they stood for. There was no love lost, even though you have to take some of it with a pinch of salt." He said that local people had likened the Fedayeen militia to hired thugs who would be involved in criminal activity if they were not involved in the state. People have also approached the British forces for help in securing their premises and protecting them from looters. "There is a lot of looting going on but our biggest concern is the looting of arms and ammuniton because that is going to continue the fighting and blur the edges between civilians and militia." In one incident, a group of young men were challenged by soldiers after they were spotted carrying weapons away from an abadoned arsenal. They dropped the weapons and were allowed to leave, but it could easily have gone the other way. A number of civilians have died in the British and US raids on Basra since the start of the war, but yesterday there appeared to be little bitterness towards the soldiers. Major Docherty said people appeared to have accepted that there would be civilian losses in any war, possibly more so because of Basra's heavy involvment in the eight year war with Iran. "They are more pragmatic about the effects of war than others might be and accept it more stoically than others might do," he said. One of the questions which has perplexed those who assumed that Basra would be quickly taken during the early days of the war is why the population did not rise up again as they did in 1991. But Major Docherty said the people remembered how they were left to fend for themselves and face the reprisals and had been reluctant to make the same mistake twice. "It wasn't realistic to expect them to rise up before there was a decisive point but I think yesterday was that decisive point," he said. "Until they had seen with their own eyes the presence of British troops they weren't prepared to commit themselves." |