BAGHDAD: Three years after the fall of Baghdad, symbolized by the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in Firdoos Square on April 9, 2003, Iraq is entangled in chaos and on the verge of civil war. “We have lived three years with the hope of seeing the situation improve but it has never been worse,” said Baghdad resident Yasser al-Moussaoui, 28.
“We are not sad for Baghdad but for the state of Baghdad, three years after its fall,” he said.
In many ways the “Paradise” Square in which the effigy of Saddam’s Baath regime tumbled continues to be a symbol of the war-ravaged country.
The square is now surrounded with barbed wire and concrete barriers in its location across from the Sheraton and Palestine hotels, where the international press is holed up.
In place of the larger-than-life likeness of the former military dictator, who now stands trial for crimes against humanity in an Iraqi court and could face death if convicted, stands a much smaller sculpture set upon a massive pedestal.
The surrounding city of Baghdad, populated by more than six million people, is on regular lockdown against bloody attacks with evening curfews and snarled lines of traffic made ever slower by a maze of roadblocks and protective barriers.
Not a day passes without at least one attack further complicating life in the Iraqi capital, which due its frequent kidnappings, shootings and bombings is one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
Faltering infrastructure also sparks dread in residents as another torrid summer approaches. Officials warn only 59 per cent of Iraq’s drinkable water needs will be met, while the nation’s electricity supply remains sporadic.
“Saddam is gone and salaries have gone up but the terrorism is suffocating us,” said Ahmed Hadi, a civil servant who says he has been unable to take his wife out in Baghdad in their five months of marriage.
Tensions have risen steadily between Iraq’s Shias and Sunnis. Sunnis make up about 20 per cent of Iraq’s 26 million population and Shias around 60 per cent. Kurds, who are predominantly Sunni, make up about 15-20 per cent and the remainder is Christian or from other smaller sects.
Sunnis are frustrated over losing the preferred status they received under Saddam Hussein. The conflict has led some political analysts and even some Iraqi leaders to warn that the country is on the edge of civil war.
The most recent outburst of violence came Friday when a triple suicide bomb attack outside a Shia mosque in Baghdad killed at least 79 people.
Still, some nurture hope that the situation will improve once a unity government is formed, capable of halting the violence and re-launching a potentially flush economy fed by the country’s plentiful oil and water resources.
“We are a thousand times better than we were under Saddam Hussein,” Shia religious leader Sadreddine al-Kubanji said during a recent prayer service in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad.—AFP
