CPT Iraq Team Report May 7, 2003, 2 pm EDT
In chatting with a neighbour, Lisa Martens learned that at least one local
school is operating well and the neighbour's children are very excited to
be back in school. However gunshots were fired into the windows of another
school while it was in session, and the students are now afraid to return.
[Lisa on satellite phone: Wow. Listen to all that machine-gun fire. Can you
hear it?] Another neighbour reported that her mother-in-law had been shot
dead last week. The woman had been in the market buying meat on Apr. 28
when she was caught in a fire-fight between U.S. troops and Iraqi gunmen.
She was hit by at least 4 bullets and fell to the ground. U.S. soldiers
took her to Al-Kindy Hospital but she died soon after. Because she did not
have identification papers with her, it was another week before her family
found out where she had disappeared to that day and what had happened to
her.
At the daily U.S. Majors / NGO meeting, team members met Lt.-Gen. Jay
Garner. He told the meeting that "the next 30 days are critical." His
priorities are to arrange some payments to government workers and get them
back on the job, get police on duty (after "weeding some out"), increase
oil production, import food supplies, restart the agricultural sector, and
improve the food distribution system in the south [Lisa: what food
distribution?]. He said, "I know NGOs need to be independent, but we want
to help you out in whatever way we can. Just tell us what we can do." The
White House announced yesterday that L. Paul Berman, a career diplomat with
experience in counter-terrorism, will be the new top man in Baghdad. This
may be in response to reports in the Washington Post that Garner's office
is in disarray characterized by "bureaucratic intrigue ... crossed signals
and confusion."
The team also reported [Lisa: Wow. That was a big explosion.] that the
unexploded ordnance in the Mansour neighbourhood, that they have been
concerned about for the past two weeks, has now been cleared up and removed.
In further conversation with Jerry Levin, a guard at the National Museum
said that at the end of the old regime's rule, the Iraqi Information
Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, had come to the museum demanding a
vehicle. When museum staff refused, al-Sahaf pulled out a gun and
commandeered the vehicle. The guard also said that very few Iraqis were
ever allowed to visit the museum and it was only open to VIPs. He said that
this may have fuelled some of the looting.
On the way back to their apartment, the team passed a city bus overturned
on its side and riddled with bullet holes. [Lisa: There's lots of machine
gun fire. It's pretty close.]
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