CPTnet April 8, 200 IRAQ: Iraqis hunker down as violence increases

by Le Anne Clausen

Although the Iraq team and delegation have been safe during this week's
heightened violence, they and many Iraqis are deeply troubled over the
escalating bloodshed.

According to AP and BBC news reports, over one hundred Iraqis and twenty
U.S. soldiers have been killed in the fighting which began Sunday evening.
A radio interview of hospital workers in Fallujah said that sixty people had
been killed in Fallujah in a twenty-four-hour period, two-thirds of them
women and children. The highest casualties were reported as coming from the
U.S. bombing of a mosque and random fire from helicopter gunships into the
streets of the city.

The streets are unusually quiet in the neighborhood of Baghdad where the
team lives. Many of the team's neighbors have said they are not venturing
out unless they must. One neighbor told Matt Chandler that his daughters are
staying home from school because they feel it is too dangerous to attend
classes.

An international colleague who teaches at Mustansiriya University in Baghdad
told the team that no students were on campus due to a strike called by
Shi'a cleric Muqtada al Sadr. "It was an 'either you're with us or against
us' kind of strike, so even those who don't support the uprising didn't come
to classes," she said.

Several friends of the team have been calling to check on the team's safety
during this time. They advise the team to maintain a low profile over the
next few days, but to stay in country and continue meeting with local
Iraqis.

At the advice of local partners, the current CPT delegation (in country
April 3-13) cancelled a visit to the village of Abu Ghraib, a vigil on
detainee issues at Abu Ghraib prison camp, and a vigil in the city of
Kerbala. Instead, the group is visiting sites inside Baghdad and meeting
with Iraqis from a variety of backgrounds.

Another neighbor said, "It is just like the 1920's when the British came.
At first they said they were here to liberate us, not occupy us. Yet after
a year of their occupation, the people began to fight them."

Iraqis from several sectors say that those who are fighting are a small
number of the population. Some fear that the U.S. will use this as an
excuse to continue the military occupation of the country far past the June
30th deadline. Others think the U.S. should leave only gradually.

A friend of the team came to report that he witnessed U.S. helicopter
gunships firing at people in the streets of "Sadr City" an impoverished
section of Baghdad where support of Sadr's anti Occupation sentiments runs
high. The friend said, "Even though I really hate Sadr--he is a bad
man--still now I hate the American soldiers for what they are doing."
However, he emphasized he did not want U.S. troops to pull out right away
either, but to change their behavior toward Iraqis.