March 28, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1428

BAGHDAD: The two surveys, one following the other, told quite different stories about Iraq. But Iraqis did not need to look at either to know what their own story is like.

The Sunday Times of London published the results of a survey on Mar 18 carried out by the British firm Opinion Research Business that claimed that most Iraqis prefer life under the new government to life under Saddam Hussein.

Another published the same day, sponsored by USA Today newspaper, the ABC news channel in the United States, BBC and the German television network ARD, found that six in ten Iraqis thought their lives were going badly, and only a third expected anything would get better in a year’s time.

But Iraqis were not looking at the surveys — they do not need to. Life around them tells its own story.

“Our government and its American friends don’t know much about us,” 35-year-old teacher Razzaq Ahmed from Ramadi said. “All they care about is their war against Al Qaeda.” And residents say the government seems to care little about the rights of Iraqi people, their right to life itself. One event after another drives home that message to people.

The killing of 18 boys at a football field in Ramadi last month has left Iraqis fuming. Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad, is capital of the restive al-Anbar province.

The United Nations Children’s Agency UNICEF said in a statement that “the loss of so many innocent children at play is unacceptable.” A statement from the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the killing of the boys “a brutal act” that “reveals the ugly face of terrorists.”

“Americans say it is Al Qaeda that did it,” Suha Aziz, mother of a four-year-old boy killed a year ago in US military fire said. “But it is their responsibility to maintain peace in Iraq, no matter who does what.”

Officials continue to paint an upbeat picture. Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, the US commander in charge of Baghdad’s security told in an interview on Mar 20 that residents were pleased with new measures taken.

“Security has been improved, and people can get back to the business of life and not have to worry about getting in and out of their cars, going to market,” Fil said. “But we’ve got a ways to go and we’re really just on the front edge of this thing.”—Dawn/The IPS News Service