By Jamal Hashim, Xinhua,
Baghdad : Nowadays at sunset, the thoroughfare of Khadraa district which bisects the Sunni neighborhood in western Baghdad is always thronged with people.
The lull of violence here has encouraged people to appear in the street, which used to be one of hottest turf war battleground when Baghdad’s sectarian conflicts were rampant.
Life seems to have gone back to normal here, where people jostle on the sidewalk; families spend good hours wandering in front of shops and stalls showcasing various goods; old men gather in cafes, smoking water pipes, drinking tea and socializing, while teenage girls stand giggling and gossiping in ice-cream shops.
However, the calm, emerges after over five years into the Iraq war, stills seem too good to be real for many of the still traumatized Iraqis, who keep asking “Is it a real and sustainable peace?”
“People here are happy to see life back to normal, but for me I am not sure of that because bad things happen from time to time. The calm is still very fragile,” said Saad Hameed, a 22-year-old college student.
The boost of U.S. troops, and uprising of Sunnis against al-Qaida and the ceasefire of a major Shiite militia are the major factors contributing to the security pickup.
The U.S. military says violence has dropped to a four-year low across Iraq. The Iraqi government is also calling for expediting the political reconciliation and the return of refugees.
However, doubt about whether it is a real and sustainable peace is still pervasive among Iraqis.
“I am not sure that we will have a real peace, because nothing tangible happened that may change the violent course of life in Baghdad. To me I think the reason behind the violence is that the country was not ready for the change the Americans and their allies want after the invasion, “said Nu’man Jabir, a 48-year-old electronic engineer.
“After the collapse of Saddam (Hussein)’s regime, the civil society and its organizations were totally not ready to show up and take the lead, while the religious parties were better organized and took the lead in the political process. They were behind the profound division in the Iraqi society,” he added.
The U.S.-led coalition forces handed over security control of the Diwaniyah province to Iraq on Wednesday, making it the tenth Iraqi province retrieved from the control among the 18 provinces in Iraq.
However, those ten provinces belong either to Kurdish or to Shiite Iraqis. In the mixed regions, like Baghdad, Nineveh and Diyala, the situation is still unstable and unpredictable.
In Baghdad, Sunnis and Shiites live in separate neighborhoods walled up by concrete. Checkpoints still strew the streets.
“It is not my Baghdad that I used to know. The city is now divided with thousands of barrier walls into smaller and smaller areas to protect people from bombings, sniper fire and kidnappings,” said 54-year-old Mahir Abbas, a government employee.
“I agree, the walls are effective in protecting the neighborhoods, but my district seems more like a prison or a military camp, because we can leave or enter the neighborhood only through one entrance where soldiers and local Awakening Council members search the cars and everything that get in or out the district,” said Abbas.
The Awakening Councils are armed Sunnis sponsored by the Americans to guard neighborhoods against extremists, like al-Qaida.
He complained that sometimes it took one or two hours to pass a checkpoint. Even inside the walled neighborhood, there are checkpoints and soldiers on the main roads and in the market.
Symbols of war are everywhere in Baghdad districts, with the U.S. vehicles patrolling the city neighborhoods, along with the heavy presence of Iraqi soldiers and policemen.
Concrete barricades and walls, which block accesses to schools, mosques, markets and every place that could be attacked, become part of the people’s memory in the city.
Besides these omnipresent symbols of war, there are also what is known as the military “rules of engagement” which give the U.S. troops and the Iraqi security forces immunity of being prosecuted by the Iraqi law, which keep reminding people that the calm is more of an externally imposed one, and thus could be volatile.
Maha Hussein, a housewife, said, “I admit things are much better, but you have to know that this calm unfortunately is not like everywhere in the world, because those who make troubles still exist and may appear at any time. Though those soldiers would fight them back, my family and I are at risk because both sides would not care for our blood.”