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Politics and violence in Iraq

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Anchor Jeb Sharp speaks with Haddad Salih, a translator for the BBC’s Baghdad bureau, about the mood in Iraq following Sunday’s double bombing attack that left at least 155 people dead. Some fear the renewed violence will delay upcoming elections in January.

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JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp, and this is The World.  Iraq is trying to come to grips with the shocking events of the past few days.  On Sunday, twin suicide bombings killed at least 155 people in Baghdad.  An al Qaida-linked group has claimed responsibility for the bombings.  This renewed violence in Iraq comes two years after the country stepped back from the brink of civil war.  And it comes as Iraq prepares for January elections.  This Baghdad resident told the BBC today that the weekend bombings didn’t come as a surprise to most Iraqis.

MAN:  [speaking Arabic] Always before an election we expect bomb attacks like this. We blame the government for it. The government has ignored the fact that attacks could happen. There is a checkpoint every 100 yards. How did these vehicles get through these checkpoints?  Didn’t the government learn anything from the August bombs? It is going to happen again right up to the election.

SHARP: The fact that Iraqis expect violence doesn’t make it any easier for them to deal with it.  That’s according to Haddad Salih, the translator for the BBC bureau in Baghdad.

HADDAD SALIH:  It’s making people furious, making people frustrated.  The picture in front of them, the future in front of them is just completely dark, you know.  I mean, there’s death everywhere, there’s death every day.  The sad thing about it is that it’s an expected death.  Everybody is a potential target.  You see, I use that same road. I was there at the same place where the explosion took place about an hour before.  I use this same road to and back from work.  Am I really still alive?  This could happen to me.  This could happen to anyone.

SHARP:  Try to explain to us how people actually behave when they’re afraid of violence all the time, and when they see that dark future ahead that you refer to.

SALIH:  Well, you see, for example, today, I was driving around and I was coming to work.  And the pedestrians, people walking around, they look suspiciously at any car because what happened could happen again.  You’ll be walking in the street, thinking of your kids, thinking of work, thinking of anything, and this car could be a potential car bomb.  So suspicious anger, it’s the mood of the street in Baghdad.

SHARP:  And do the streets actually feel emptier in the aftermath of something like that?  Do people retreat away from one another?

SALIH:  Well, on the contrary, people are getting closer together, because they feel they have the common enemy.  That enemy is by politics, by what you call corrupt politics.  It’s not sectarian violence any more.  It’s something that’s out there to claim their lives.

SHARP:  What is it about the elections that makes this happen?  What’s at stake and why does it affect things so much?

SALIH:  Well, that’s what the people say, and I’m just telling you what the people say out in the street.  They think that this party wants to make that party look weak, look like it’s not doing its duty, that it’s negligence in terms of the security.  It’s one party, one political party, making the other one look bad.

SHARP:  How has your work changed?  How have your days changed as this violence has come back to the fore?

SALIH:  Usually it takes me, with clear traffic, it usually takes me maybe at the most 15 minutes to get to work.  Now it takes me about two hours to get to work, because many streets are closed, especially when the two explosions, Sunday explosions, took place in central Baghdad.  And

that’s led to the closure of the area where the explosion took place, and the closure of the streets.  So that put a pressure on other streets, and more checkpoints are erected.  So that puts pressure on other streets and that makes people’s lives hell.

SHARP:  And what about the movement of goods and shops being open or shut, has that been affected?

SALIH:  Well, of course, everything will be affected.  Businesses will be closed.  Those businesses that are open, they have lost customers, so it affects all aspects of life.

SHARP:  What do you see the government doing to combat the attacks, to ward off the attacks?  I mean, people are angry and presumably they’re angry at the government for not providing security.  How has the government responded?

SALIH:  By erecting more checkpoints and making people’s lives more miserable.

SHARP:  What else, Haddad?  Any details or anecdotes or stories that you’ve heard that would help people here understand how things have shifted and how painful it is?

SALIH:  Well, for example, some of the people who live in the area where the explosions took place, they are telling us horrible stories.  They were telling us about this lady who, her husband called her from underneath the rubble and he told her, “I’m still underneath the rubble.  Could you do something?  Could you call somebody?  Could you come and ask people to get me out?”  And the neighbors were saying that she came to the site where the explosion took place at the Ministry of Justice building at 3:00 in the morning.  And she asked the guards there, she said, “My husband just called me.  Could you do something?  He’s on the mobile.”  And they told her, “Well,

it’s still dark.  We can’t go out now,” and stuff like that.  And in the morning when they came to the place where she thinks that her husband is in, her husband was dead.  How sad can it be?

SHARP:  Haddad Salih, you’ve seen an awful lot, and this was a particularly bad attack, and I wonder how you keep perspective and how you think about everything that’s happened, and what it means about this particular moment.

SALIH:  I saw the explosions.  I’d just go to work, as I said, and I did a couple of things and then I went and had a cup of coffee.  And then I was standing on the balcony of our bureau, smoking a cigarette, and I was looking in the direction when the explosions took place.  And they happened.  I saw them with my own eyes.

SHARP:  What did you think in that moment?

SALIH:  What did I think?  I thought about the poor people who were there.  That’s what I thought. I mean, God help me, you know.  What can you feel?  How can you feel?  It’s just really shaking.  I’m still shaking.

SHARP:  Well, thank you for trying to describe it to us.  Haddad Salih–

SALIH:  My pleasure.

SHARP:  — is a translator for the BBC’s Baghdad bureau.  Take care.

SALIH:  Thank you very much.  You too.

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