- BAGHDAD -- The Kamal family
want one thing from their new government. "Security," said Sarmad,
a 25-year-old doctor. His family nodded in agreement but who should bring
this and how forceful an approach should be taken sparks debate, both at
the dinner table of this middle-class Baghdad family and across the country.
-
- Many Iraqis think that only an iron fist will stop the
kidnappings, car-jackings and random death threats that have dominated
the lives of Iraqis. Others want snap elections. Some even want the US
military to stay.
-
- "We must have an elected government," said
Sarmad, the idealist of the family.
-
- He believed that only democracy would bring peace to
his countrymen, by making them feel their voices were heard.
-
- His older brother Ahmed, 32, a slightly corpulent planning
ministry official, disagreed. He said only a military officer could impose
order.
-
- "Just look at our history. We need control,"
he said.
-
- Their mother, Dalal, wanted her family to get behind
Iyad Allawi, the prime minister, while the father threw his hands in the
air and moaned that nothing could help the situation now.
-
- "Maybe the Americans could stay for longer,"
whispered Dania, 24, a computer science graduate.
-
- The Kamals' debate reflects the scale of the change that
many Iraqis feel sovereignty will bring, although few are optimistic about
the future.
-
- They say that the steady decline in security has forced
them to temper their hopes for the freedom and democracy they thought American
rule would bring.
-
- For the Kamals it's been a bumpy 14 months.
-
- Sarmad, like most students at his medical college, welcomed
the openness brought to his campus by the US-led invasion. But since then,
he says, religious groups have moved in and begun to impose their austere
vision of Islam.
-
- "It really did feel like a liberation until these
goons moved in," he said. "It gave us a taste of what democracy
would be like."
-
- He had also hoped that the Americans would bring modern
laboratory equipment. Instead he rarely has enough electricity for the
few pieces that were left over from the looting.
-
- For Ahmed, the war only interrupted for a month his work
as assistant director in charge of licensing new construction. Since then,
he confesses, he has not had to do very much work.
-
- He used to sign-off 2,000 projects a year. Under the
Americans he has awarded only 400 licences. "No one wants to build
a house at the moment. They think it will be blown up if they do,"
he said.
-
- Since last June, Ahmed, who has a four-year-old son,
said his salary had jumped from £11 a day to £165. "But
we can't spend the money we're earning at the moment because of the security.
That's why I want to see a strong leader in charge again."
-
- He has managed to buy some things though. He recently
spent £200 on a car and bought a new wardrobe of Turkish clothes.
-
- His wife, Bam, who has a degree in civil engineering,
said: "I dream about what life would be like outside Iraq.
-
- "I want to leave Iraq as soon as possible to live
in Dubai. But Ahmed refuses. He says we must stay while Iraq needs him."
-
- Dalal, the mother, a 51-year-old teacher at Baghdad School
for Girls who also instructs new teachers in western teaching methods,
said: "The girls in my class talk and shout a lot more than they used
to.
-
- "I think it's good for them so long as they're all
shouting about the same thing."
-
- She said that several of her pupils had been kidnapped
for ransom over the past few months.
-
- "It's been a tough time but we'll get by so long
as we work together," she said.
-
- For her husband, Mohammed, a retired brigadier with the
Iraqi army, the past year has been spent sitting on his couch watching
his new satellite television. He retired from the army in 1991 but, as
a healthy 60-year-old he says he would be happy to serve in the new Iraqi
army.
-
- He asked: "No one has approached me, so what am
I to do? This country has been ruined by the violence. I don't see very
much hope for the future."
-
- His family said he had not visited his local army recruitment
centre yet. "We would like him to get out more," said Dalal.
-
- Dania is the only one in the family who wants the Americans
to stay. She has just graduated in computer sciences and wants to get a
job with an American company.
-
- "They pay very well and are very nice to women,"
she said. "I shall be sad to see them go."
-
- As the family sat debating the future of Iraq, they were
well aware that under Saddam they would not have been able to talk so freely.
But, they say, there is only so much value they can attach to words.
-
- "We love being able to talk but when are we going
to see a democratic government that will give us hope?" asked Sarmad.
-
- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004
-
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=
- 24QQHDUVIYXT3QFIQMGSM5OAVCBQWJVC?xml=/news/2004/06/29/
- woccu129.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/06/29/ixnewstop.html
|
