IRAQ: Bleak picture for two families on either side of Iraq's religious divide

Four years ago, Idan Hizam, a Shiite Muslim who'd been fired from work after the execution of his brother during the predominantly Sunni regime of Saddam Hussein, hailed the American presence, hoping that his life would be better. Four years on, those dreams have died as insurgency and rising sectarian violence have brought new fears, and more poverty. "I was fired from police force on February 2, 1985 and no one has recruited me since, " said 41-year-old Hizam in Baghdad's Shi'ite bastion of Sadr City. "I am the breadwinner of the family. My brother was executed (by Saddam's regime) and I was hurt. I tried to work as a daily labourer but I could not, I applied for a job at municipality but they did not hire me. Where shall I go?" Until U.S. troops entered Baghdad four years ago, the neighbourhood was called Saddam City, it is also known as Al Thawra (Revolution City). Now it is called Sadr City. Despite the name change, nothing has changed in terms of the quality of life. The city, one of Baghdad's poorest areas, suffers from rampant unemployment and ailing infrastructure. The area lacks many basic services. Electricity is available for only about two hours a day and some streets frequently flood with sewage. Hizam, a father of four children, lives in a crumbled house in the city. Recently his nephew was killed in a surge of sectarian violence, forcing his sister's family of seven to flee their home in the Sunni-populated district and come to live with them. "We fled our home when my brother was killed and my father was paralysed, " said a tearful Zaman Tallal, Hazim's 31-year-old niece. "This is his (my brother's) son and we are living with my grandparents who are very poor. We hoped that when we got rid of Saddam, we would be in better situation, but what we have got are car bombs." Now Hizam's family numbers 31, crowding the three-room house. With no job, he and his brothers-in-law clean the over-flooded sewage of the slum in return for meagre wages. When the U.S.-led war was over, and Saddam Hussein had fled, many Iraqis - and Hizam was one of them - believed "Operation Iraqi Freedom" had delivered a bright new future, free of fear and the economic sanctions that impoverished them, but, they soon realised that they were mistaken. Now, Iraqis say their dreams of a better life have vanished as car bombings and political assassination are near-daily occurrences and neighbourhoods are torn along sectarian lines. Umm Abdul Wahab, a Sunni Muslim who was displaced from his house in the mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of Tobji said: "Nothing has changed since Saddam's time until now. We do not have a house, a job or a decent life. It is almost the same for us with no place to settle. We move from house to house. This is the third house to move in." She explains her husband was as a conscript in Saddam's army and was demobilised after ten years service without a salary and now he is unemployed. Her two sons were forced to work as cleaners to make a living for the family. Though, Umm Abdul Wahab was not better off under Saddam, she says she felt more secure in Saddam's Iraq. She explains: "I had to take my daughter out of school because of harsh living condition and difficult circumstances and because of the killings and kidnapping. How can you feel secure? I feel afraid when my sons go out, but what can I do? I send them to work as cleaners at governmental offices to earn us a living. We thank God for everything, but the most important thing is to have security." After almost three years of bloodletting and a surging violence, fear has replaced hope among families on either side of the religious divide. Security for the average Iraqi is now worse than it was under Saddam Hussein, who focused mainly on political dissidents. The pervading view is that living standards of the average Iraqi are far worse, there is far more unemployment, and the distribution of income is a major problem. In the months following the bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine last year, the victims of bloody reprisals are becoming more numerous and more visible. Dozens of bodies are dumped in Baghdad every day, many after being tortured.

ITN Source | March 19, 2007

Tags:. .poverty. .insurgency. .cleaners. .torn. .wages