IRAQ: Baghdad edging back towards normality

Photo: DVIC

An Iraqi family celebrating a wedding drives through the Al Furat area of Baghdad. The security situation is said to be much better these days (file photo)

BAGHDAD, 11 February 2009 (IRIN) - For many, life is slowly beginning to return to normal in Baghdad six years after the US-led invasion.

“The war has ended,” said Haider Sadiq Mohammed, a 33-year-old thin and mustachioed father of two. “A few years ago I was not able to open my restaurant more than six hours a day due to the security situation, but now we serve clients 15 hours a day.”

Mohammed has just bought the store next to his restaurant in eastern Baghdad to expand his business, while Aqeel Khazaal Naji is able to walk with his family in a Baghdad park or visits relatives at will.

“Before we were not able to even sit in our own garden,” said Naji, a 45-year-old Oil Ministry employee, who said it was also fine to go out at night.

Baghdad’s darkest days were in 2007 when this city of about six million people was in the throes of sectarian hatred and killings, insurgency, daily assassinations and car bombs, and criminal gangs roamed the streets with impunity.

The sight of women queueing in front of Baghdad’s main morgue with coffins to claim the bodies of their beloved ones was common; men did not show up as they feared being kidnapped.

Parks lay abandoned and markets closed; schools and government offices were only open some of the time.

“I will serve new dishes and have tables on the sidewalk,” Mohammed said. Al-Obaibi neighbourhood, where the restaurant is, was once the scene of daily clashes between Shia militiamen and US and Iraqi forces.

Violence down

Iraqi and US military officials say violent incidents have dropped by more than 80 percent in Iraq since late 2005, but they warn the situation is still fragile.

According to government figures released in early February, there were 251 conflict-related deaths in January, the lowest number in a full month since 2005.

In other ways, too, things are not quite back to normal: Most places, even in central Baghdad, still experience frequent power cuts, water shortages and unhygienic sanitary conditions (sewage systems are in need of repair).

One notable legacy of the conflict is the refugees and internally displaced persons - and many families have been torn apart.

“My family members are distributed in four countries,” said Hazim Nasser Jabr, a 20-year-old student at Baghdad’s Engineering College. “My parents are in Cairo, a brother in London, a sister in Dubai and I’m here in Baghdad.”

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