Early yesterday morning, a little after daybreak in the newly liberated city of Basra, Mohammed Hussain (49) opened the door to his apartment. As his wife and children sat chatting in the kitchenette, Mr Hussain, a taxi driver, threw open bare cupboard after bare cupboard. ”I have nothing,” he said. ”Saddam and the war took everything.”
His life is typical in Basra, a city of more than 1,5-million people. After decades of deliberate underfunding by the Ba’ath party, and the cumulative effects of sanctions and the UN’s oil-for-food programme, Basra is a dead city that bears little resemblance to the playground once frequented by Kuwaitis who streamed in, searching for whisky and nightclubs.
”We have had no food for a month,” said Hussain. An English teacher by profession, he now drives a taxi for a living, ferrying people from Basra to the nearby market town of Zubayr. As he walked around his living room, he pointed to empty tables. The family’s other belongings, he said, including a TV set and hi-fi, had been sold years before to pay for basic essentials. ”First, the government kills us,” he said. ”Then, the Americans and the British bomb our houses. We cannot do anything. We have nothing.”
As Hussain walked back into the old town, he pointed at the four British army water tankers dispensing water. In total, 96 000 litres of water marked the first humanitarian aid to the city since the war began. A crowd of people had gathered around each tanker, and people frantically passed buckets and containers back and forth. ”This is not good enough,” Hussain said. ”There is a water pipe nearby. The British should switch it on. This water is no good. The Iraqi people need water in their homes.”
Years of sanctions have destroyed Basra’s fragile resolve. Hussain remembers the days before the Ba’ath party, when Iraqi doctors considered obesity a dilemma. Now, rubbish is piled knee-high in the streets; the city looks like a dumping ground for the relics of the Iraqi army; and malnutrition is endemic.
Back at the water drop-off, previously jubilant Iraqis were becoming irate as they perceived the aid as too little, too late. Many said the city had been without water for three days. ”We need much more aid,” said Hussain. ”If the west is going to get rid of Saddam, it must give us something as well. It cannot just leave us. Otherwise, there will be a new dictatorship.”
He joined the queue with a plastic bucket. Around him, Iraqis jostled for position with British soldiers as they strained to reach the taps. While the water was well received, the shortcomings of the British humanitarian effort are all too apparent.
”I have taps at home, but they have not been working for some time,” said Amina Zubayr (36). A shy woman, reluctant to speak of the regime, she said she and her family needed the water infrastructure to be repaired. ”My house does not work otherwise,” she said. ”My family cannot function without water.”
Around her, Iraqis clamoured with bottles and plastic buckets. On seeing British journalists, one Iraqi youngster said: ”Be careful with your belongings. There are lots of thieves around. They will take everything.”
Another complained that Ba’ath party officials were hiding among the crowd. ”We cannot speak of the government,” he said. ”The Ba’ath party can hear us. And they are taking notes. What can we do? Can we report them to the British army?”
Hussain eventually returned from his space in the queue after having waited for nearly two hours. The British soldiers were clambering back into their water trucks. ”Khalas”, said Hussein, meaning ”empty”. ”I have waited for so long. And still there is no water. This is not the way to do things.”
Another man, Sajid, seeking medicine for his father, was told that hospitals might not be functioning again for a week. ”My father will be dead by then,” he said. ”He cannot survive that long without his medicine.”
As the trucks moved off, Iraqis gave chase. For the newly liberated citizens of Basra, long ignored by both the regime in Baghdad and the west, there exists a sense of impatience. The war has brought much suffering, and they are angry that the aid effort is too slow to heal the devastation of the last few weeks. – Guardian Unlimited Â