Baghdad, Iraq
Zehira Houfani (writer and journalist),
Member of the Montreal Iraq Solidarity Project

More than 4 million Iraqis have lost their jobs following the invasion of their country by the United States. To take the measure of the drama represented by this figure, it must be multiplied by five to obtain the 20 million Iraqis (women and children) who survive on little bits of nothing under the indifference of the new masters of Iraq, all too busy with their looting strategy and subcontracting of power in this country.

From the first bombardments to this day, that is almost six months, workers and their families have been without resources and their situation is deteriorating day by day. To make their demands in what is now pompously called ‘The New Iraq’, they have created the Union of the Unemployed. This organisation has made repeated requests to the occupation forces, without any result whatsoever. Once again, it mobilised its members for another demonstration on Abu Nawas street, Tuesday July 29th. The rallying point was an old bank building, burned down during the war, which was now home to the Communist Party of Iraq.

Baghdad, Iraq
Zehira Houfani (writer and journalist),
Member of the Montreal Iraq Solidarity Project

“Under Saddam’s regime, despite all the post-war constraints, it took 48 days to re-establish electricity in Baghdad after the destruction of the first Gulf War,” says Nahla, artist and owner of a Baghdad art gallery. And she adds indignantly : “Why have the Americans, the most powerful country on the planet, not restored it more than four months after having destroyed our networks and infrastructure? See how water is getting rare in these boiling hot temperatures. I have a child of 7 years old and I suffer twice over to see him enduring this terrible heat. Just think of the millions of deprived Iraqis, babies, the ill, the aged, who are suffocating in the heat. How dare people in the American administration talk about our well-being when they are torturing us?” At that very moment the electricity was cut. “There you are!” cried Nahla. “We are entering four hours of hell!” Actually, the instant the ventilation stopped, a dreadful heat enveloped us. It was 52�C in the shade today. And it is like that for months.

The whole week I stayed in Baghdad, people never stopped complaining about the deterioration in their living conditions since the arrival of the American forces. Even those who believed the invasion was the evil for the good, no longer hesitate to say that the American army has colonised Iraq to seize its oil. “They have been spending our money for four months without concern for us, or our essential needs like electricity, water and security. Iraq has never had abductions of children or women for ransom before. I’ve been hearing about this for a few weeks and I think that it is extremely serious for Iraqi society. It really was better in Saddam’s time, believe me. Today, I cannot stop crying about what has become of my city, Baghdad, disfigured by bombs, looting, vandalism and all this machinery of war, the soldiers and the barbed wire that criss-crosses our streets. It is as though we are living in a vast prison under the yoke of the United States.”

Baghdad, Iraq
Zehira Houfani (writer and journalist),
Member of the Montreal Iraq Solidarity Project

I couldn’t believe my eyes! Is it so easy to torture someone in an Iraq liberated from Saddam?

Yet the marks on the body of Al-Mountadhar Fadhel, a young Iraqi student of 23 years old, were so undeniably real, shocking, and above all completely unacceptable.

Al-Mountadhar lives in Hay El-houria, one of the poor, run-down neighbourhoods in the outskirts of Baghdad. Most of the streets and allies are inaccessible to cars. They are either too broken up or are drowned in dirty water which nearly reaches up to the sidewalks. “It is the same everywhere since the Americans arrived in Baghdad,” Ahmed, a taxi-driver, explained. In fact, the destruction of Iraqi state buildings, such as the ministries, the factories, the universities, the administrative centres, the city halls, etc., threw millions of Iraqi workers out of work; including those city employees, among others, who were responsible for collecting the garbage. All are on forced unemployment, just at a time when there is so much to do to prevent infectious diseases and other epidemics in this extremely hot weather. It is more than 50� and the garbage has not been collected for weeks in Baghdad neighbourhoods. It took us more than twenty minutes to move less than one kilometre and arrive at El-machtel street where Al-Mountadhar lives.

Baghdad, Iraq
Zehira Houfani (writer and journalist),
Member of the Montreal Iraq Solidarity Project

It was around 6 pm, this Sunday July 27th 2003, when the El-Birhana family left their home in their car, driving towards their neighbourhood Church, Al-Mansour, Hay Al-Andalous, right in the middle of Baghdad. The El-Birhana family was comprised of the mother and her two sons, Tamer et Mazen, respectively 35 and 27 years old. Tamer was driving the family vehicle and was proceeding normally towards the end of the alley, when suddently at the point of turning, the car was sprayed with US soldiers gunfire. The entire Birhana family was killed instantly in a terrifying bloodbath. The car that was following immediately behind, with two passengers on board, experienced the same fate at the hand of US soldiers.