'A sad, sorry, tragic story for Baghdadis' Michael Jansen

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NIGHT HAS wrapped itself round Baghdad like a black velvet shawl decorated here and there with gem clusters of bright lights. I pull the curtain aside and peer out. Most of the neighbourhood is deeply dark. There is no traffic, Karada is still. It is chilly in my room. The other guests at the hotel are sleeping in their warm beds. But I have to send a long article to Dublin in the morning, so I sit before my computer typing until the final word is in place. I plunge into a tepid shower to wash away the day's grime and soot. Baghdad is sorely afflicted with pollution smog. Due to the acute shortage of fuel — for heating, cars and cooking — we must choose between hot water and warm rooms. As I slip between the cold sheets, there is a brief crackle of automatic fire. A pause. A responding burst from a light machinegun. Fire, once again, perhaps from the initiator of the exchange. A heavy machinegun weighs in. I step out of bed and draw back the curtain an inch or two. Nothing is stirring on the street beneath my window or the main road in front of the hotel. The lights of the hotels down the street remain bright, unwavering. Our guard, who sleeps in his car parked on the pavement, has not even come out to see what is going on. The shooting dies down and I manage to sleep, thinking of a second article I must write before setting out on my daily rounds. I wake at five, just in time to hear the heavy, dull thud of a bomb coming from somewhere behind the hotel. I rise and begin to write another piece.

The sun sets at half past five in the evening and does not rise till nearly seven in the morning. Most Iraqis do not have lights or heating and go to bed and rise in the dark and cold. Those who have generators and enough money to buy fuel for their heating systems are in the same boat as us, visitors, who live in the relative comfort of hotels.

Iraqis have guns at home rather than in parked cars in front of their abodes. I am back at the Orient Palace in Karada, a modest hotel with a restaurant harking back to the halcyon days of the fifties. Having survived revolution and war, older Iraqis look back to the days of the monarchy with longing. Some even favour the return to the throne of Iraq of Sharif Ali Bin Hussein, head of the Constitutional Monarchy Party. Iraqis want stability, jobs, electricity and fuel for their heaters and cars and gas to cook their meals. If a king can deliver what they want, they will opt for a king. They no longer believe Washington is capable of delivering democracy. Indeed, most Iraqis are convinced that the US has no intention of providing them with security or the necessities of life.

“They Americans don't care about us, only about their soldiers and officials,” is the constant Iraqi refrain. They are right. US troops and officials are now living behind razor wire, barricades and high concrete block walls which remind me of the so-called “separation walls” the Israeli government is building all over the West Bank, allegedly to protect Israeli civilians from Palestinian bombers. The walled and wired “Green Zone” has been expanded to embrace the Jumhurriya Palace complex, where ousted President Saddam Hussein had his offices, the Rashid Hotel, the International Conference Centre and the hall where the US-appointed Governing Council convenes. The zone consumes at least 12 square kilometres of territory in the heart of Baghdad, a city of 5 million. Baghdadis cannot enter without permits and must drive round this isolated fortified island. They must also deal with countless fixed check points and flying barricades which disrupt and divert traffic, wasting precious petrol. Baghdad is being turned into a second West Bank.

Most foreigners living inside the Green Zone rarely leave. They have little contact with the people they rule and are afraid of them. Foodstuffs for the occupation regime are flown in from outside the country so that poison cannot be introduced by Iraqis. Fear of local produce and foodstocks has exacerbated the stockade mentality of those living within the zone. For them, Iraqis are not a “liberated” people, but “hostiles”. To make matters worse, the US-appointed Iraqi interim Governing Council has failed to bridge the wide gulf between ordinary Iraqis and the occupation regime. While some members have made the attempt to do so and have established political parties with the aim of creating popular constituencies and representing their people, the five core council members favoured by the US care no more about the urgent needs and demands of Iraqis than the US officials in the Green Zone. The favoured five are Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), Ayad Alawi of the Iraqi National Accord (INA), Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani and Ibrahim Jafari of the Islamist Da'wa Party. Abdel Aziz Hakim, head of the Tehran-backed Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) is associated with this group.

According to authoritative sources, these figures are simply interested in forwarding their own agendas and securing personal power. Pentagon-supported Chalabi seeks to become Iraq's next dictator. He may even manage this if US Viceroy L. Paul Bremer III fails to implement his plan to turn over power to the Iraqis by next June. Bush wants to effect a political exit by July 1, to boost his prospects for election in November. He intends, however, to secure arrangements for a permanent US military presence in Iraq and for the exploitation of the country's oil resources before handing over sovereignty to an Iraqi provisional government.

The extent to which Chalabi will go to promote himself was revealed last week in the aftermath of the capture of Saddam Hussein by US forces, on Dec. 13.

On Dec. 18, the INC newspaper published a photograph of him sitting with Saddam Hussein who, allegedly, had asked for a private encounter with Chalabi. In fact, the photo was taken on Dec. 14 at the meeting between four members of the council, including Chalabi, with the former dictator. The newspaper, which obtained the photograph by dubious means, retouched the photograph to exclude the other council members and claim, falsely, that Chalabi had a second meeting with Saddam Hussein. It is ironic that Chalabi would make such a claim. During the famous encounter, Saddam did not recognise Chalabi, the man who would succeed him, and two of the other exiles. Indeed, the former president identified only Dr Adnan Pachachi, the most respected of the council's 25 members and a former foreign minister. As the photo was taken, Saddam asked Pachachi: “What are you doing here with these traitors?”

Little wonder I write in fits and starts during the hours of darkness whenever the hotel generator is functioning. Baghdad, the city of 1,001 long, dark nights is a treasure trove of articles for journalists, a sad, sorry, tragic story for Baghdadis