Return to Baghdad (IWPR journalist back after four years)

[Barrett808]

Return to Baghdad
By Susanne Fischer
(13-Mar-08)

My Baghdad trip starts with a visit the Sulaimaniyah Bazaar to buy a hijab and an abaya - a long black coat that shall cover me from head to toe. These will be necessary whenever I am to leave the highly secured Green Zone, which, home to embassies, media organisations, and government buildings, will be my base for the next fortnight.

It is my first visit to the capital since I left in May 2004. Apart from occasional stop-overs at Baghdad International Airport, I have restricted myself to the much safer Kurdish region in the north that borders with Turkey and Iran. In the relative safety of Sulaimaniyah, IWPR has set up its training center for journalists from all over Iraq.

In 2004, when I was working as a reporter in Iraq, I lived in a rented private home in the predominantly Christian, central Baghdad neighbourhood of Arasat. I roamed the streets on foot or in my own car I had brought over from Germany - a blue 1987 Volkswagen Passat station wagon.

I had no security guards, just a translator who would sit in the passenger seat and guide me through Baghdad's labyrinthine neighbourhoods while reading the local headlines to me. In pursuit of stories, I traveled from Zacho on the Turkish border to Basra down at the Shatt-al-Arab; from Baquba in the far east to Hit on the Euphrates river in Anbar in the far west.

Now, four years later, the only area of Baghdad considered "safe" comprises a mere 7.7 square kilometres.

The official name for the Green Zone - a patch of land on the west bank of the Tigris - is International Zone, or IZ. However, most people still use its old name, to contrast this sealed-off part of Baghdad with the Red Zone beyond the blast walls and the barbed wire.

...

I meet with a Dutch friend in the cafeteria. She just got back from a visit to al-Mutanabi street, which for many decades was the most famous book market in town. It now lies in ruins after being bombed in March 2007.

"It's heartbreaking," she tells me. "Most stores are closed, there a very few people, and I did not feel safe to stay longer than 15 minutes."

...

As we cruise through Baghdad, I feel like watching a convalescent patient who is slowly, very slowly recovering from a life-threatening disease. A patient of whose survival one cannot yet be sure.

The only street full of life is Karada Jauwa, a traditional trade and market place in downtown Baghdad lined with little Kebab stalls, bakeries, art galleries, cell phone shops and clothing stores. Apart from the numerous police checkpoints, Karada looks just like four years ago.

A week later, we go out for a drive, after having lunch at a friend's house. We visit Zeyouna, a mixed neighbourhood in east Baghdad where the landlords from my last stay used to live. They have left the country, and when I see their area, I understand why.

Rubai´a street back then was a lively street with coffee shops, restaurants, internet cafes and boutiques. Today, garbage burns on the street, and only a few families are out strolling.

(more)

http://www.iwpr.net/EN-icr-f-343376