Baghdad Walls Keep Peace, But Evoke Prison

Ubiquitous Barriers In Iraqi Capital Protect People But Also Lead To Gridlock, Division

(AP)  Baghdad hasn't been this quiet in years. But the respite from bloodshed comes at a high price.

Up to 20 feet high in some sections.

Rows after rows of barrier walls divide the city into smaller and smaller areas that protect people from bombings, sniper fire and kidnappings. They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison.

Baghdad's walls are everywhere, turning a riverside capital of leafy neighborhoods and palm-lined boulevards where Shiites and Sunnis once mingled into a city of shadows separating the two Muslim sects.

The walls block access to schools, mosques, churches, hotels, homes, markets and even entire neighborhoods - almost anything that could be attacked. For many Iraqis, they have become the iconic symbol of the war.

"Maybe one day they will remove it," said Kareem Mustapha, a 26-year-old Sadr City resident who lives a five-minute walk from a wall built this spring in the large Shiite district.

"I don't know when, but it is not soon."

Indeed, new walls are still going up, the latest one around the northwestern Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, where thousands of Sunnis were slaughtered or expelled in 2006. They could well be around for years to come, reflecting Iraq's fragile peace and enshrining the capital's sectarian divisions.

Some walls are colorful, painted by young local artists with scenes depicting green pastures or the pomp and glory of Iraq's ancient civilizations.

Others are commercial, plastered with fliers advertising everything from the local kebab joint to seaside vacations in Iran or university degrees in Ukraine.

Still others are religious or political, with posters of popular clerics or graffiti hostile to the United States, Israel or - most recently - Iraq's prime minister.

Most are just bleak and gray, a reminder that danger lurks on the other side.

Dora, a one-time stronghold of Sunni insurgents in southern Baghdad, has so many walls and observation towers that some parts resemble a maze.

The district's notorious Moalimeen area, which until a year ago had been among the most dangerous places in the capital, is now accessible to pedestrians through revolving iron doors guarded by security troops.

"The walls have stopped gunmen from coming into the neighborhood," said Salim Ahmed, a 29-year-old oil refinery worker who lives and works in Dora. "But we also feel that we are in a prison and isolated from the rest of the city."

In some areas of Baghdad, the walls delay the movement of food and other essential supplies, raising prices. Where successful in preventing attacks and reducing crime, the walls push up the prices of homes.

The U.S. military defends the walls, crediting them with disrupting the movement and supply routes of the Sunni militants of al Qaeda in Iraq and the Shiite militiamen of the so-called special groups. It also disagrees with the notion that the walls are dividing the city alongside sectarian lines.

First introduced by the Americans in 2003 to protect their Green Zone headquarters, walls became much more widespread with the launch early last year of a major security campaign in Baghdad. In some walled-off neighborhoods, access was granted only on proof of residence or special ID cards.

Nowadays there's hardly a street in Baghdad without a wall - or a cheaper substitute like barbed wire, palm tree trunks, mounds of dirt or piles of rocks. They're even used to control pedestrian and vehicular traffic in risky areas.

The U.S. military in April sealed off the southern section of Sadr City to put the American Embassy and Iraqi government offices out of range of rockets and mortars fired by Shiite militiamen.

The shelling has since stopped, and quick-thinking entrepreneurs rushed to lay claim to a spot against the wall to sell fruits and vegetables.

Because of the Sadr City wall, Mustapha's journey to work every day now involves a 15-minute walk and two minibus rides - a major inconvenience considering Baghdad's unforgiving summer heat.

"It's both annoying and useful," Mustapha said "It makes us feel like prisoners, but things have calmed since they placed it."

On June 12, the U.S. military began building the new barrier around Hurriyah, tying into two existing walls to prevent Shiite extremists from coming and going at will and presumably from smuggling in arms.

"Our intent is to create a safer Hurriyah neighborhood, with markets that people will want to use without fear and roads safe for people travel," Maj. Frank Garcia, a spokesman for U.S. forces in western Baghdad, said Wednesday.

Five days after construction crews broke soil, a truck bombing killed 63 people on a bustling commercial street. The U.S. military said a renegade Shiite militiaman ordered the attack to incite retaliatory Shiite violence against Sunnis. It said his intent was to disrupt Sunni resettlement in Hurriyah in order to maintain extortion of real estate rental income.

The allegation points to a shift in the Iraq conflict, with the U.S. military increasingly concerned about Iranian-backed Shiite splinter groups as al Qaeda's influence recedes.

In defending the Hurriyah walls, Garcia cited their "significant effect" in the northern Baghdad district of Azamiyah, a Sunni stronghold where al Qaeda militants and other extremists once ruled the streets.

The old part of Azamiyah was sealed early last year in the first attempt by the U.S. and Iraqi militaries to wall off an entire neighborhood.

News of the 3-mile-long wall caused an uproar among Sunnis across the country, with many speaking of a conspiracy by the Shiite-dominated government to suffocate the city's most famous Sunni district, also home to the sect's most important shrine in Iraq, the Grand Imam mosque.

The wall reduced violence significantly in Azamiyah, but the stringent security checks and the delays at crossing points ruffled many residents.

"The wall came to make us suffer," said Waleed Mahmoud, a 35-year-old Azamiyah resident and father of four. "It takes my children an hour to get to school, I am often late for work and there is never fewer than 10 cars in the line at the two crossing points."

The local economy, which suffered during the worst of the bloodshed, hasn't improved since the wall was built. The neighborhood's popular garment stores and kebab restaurants are still doing a fraction of the business they enjoyed before the war. Potential shoppers from other neighborhoods are staying away, wary of the identity checks at the wall.

Business generated by Azamiyah residents is not enough to sustain commerce. About half of them fled to escape the violence. They have yet to return.

[bluestardad]

BUSH SHOULD BE TRIED FOR WAR CRIMES!

BUSH HAS ALL BUT STOPPED THE SEARCH FOR BIN LADEN EVEN ARRESTED THE MERCENARIES THAT WERE HUNTING HIM FOR THE BOUNTY!

THE BIN LADEN FAMILY IS LONG TIME BUSH FAMILY FRIENDS!

SHUT DOWN THE UNIT THAT WAS TRYING TO FIND BIN LADEN!

SENT JAMES BAKER TO DEFEND THE SAUDI GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE 911 VICTIMS FAMILIES!

THEN STARTED A WAR IN IRAQ FOR NO REASON EXCEPT OIL AND TO DO ISRAELI DIRTY WORK!

AMERICA NEEDS TO DEMAND JUSTICE!

STAND UP OR SHUT UP!

[inventagod2]

I don''t like bu$HAMErica, and cannot wait to start rebuilding the world he r@ped and pillaged.

[underdogus10]

BUSH SHOULD BE TRIED FOR WAR CRIMES!
Posted by bluestardad at 10:12 AM : Jun 27, 2008
CBS COWARDS!! DELETE Bluestardad!! CBS COWARDS!! I RESPECT PRESIDENT BUSH AND I GET DELETED!! COWARDS

[underdogus10]

MR BUSH: INSTALL MARTIAL LAW!! BRING BACK THE DRAFT!! NOW!!

[mcvet]

Mr. Bush, Tear down that Wall!! ROFLMAO

[nelson5715]

MR BUSH: BRING BACK THE DRAFT!! NOW!!

Posted by underdogus10 at 10:19 AM : Jun 27, 2008
+ report abuse"

YES !!!
We can then sell the rights of fat ***, obese, yellow bellied evangelical southerners going through bootcamp around the world - the revenues will pay off the US national debt EASILY

[midland666]

Look its the Sothwest U.S. oh. wait..

[lewiston14]

Until these people learn to play nice again hopefully temp walls are better then not being able to go outside at all. No different then out home neighborhood gated comunities here. Big iron fences with locked gates and guards except we wanted them.

[pensacola88]

Weapons and walls prove that we invaded and occupy a savage country. The population of a country that can''t govern itself and gives control of itself to walls and weapons shows us how brutally oppressive it was under Saddaam Hussein''s rule.

The John McCain "100-Year" statement came from knowing that it may take this long for a savage and oppressed population to civilize itself.

[mcvet]

Weapons and walls prove that we invaded and occupy a savage country. The population of a country that can''''t govern itself and gives control of itself to walls and weapons shows us how brutally oppressive it was under Saddaam Hussein''''s rule.

The John McCain "100-Year" statement came from knowing that it may take this long for a savage and oppressed population to civilize itself.

Posted by Pensacola88 at 11:46 AM : Jun 27, 2008
+ report abuse

Oh yeah! These are the Creatures we picked to "Give" the OLDEST Civilization on the PLANET Democracy. Now I grew up in the 60''s folks and I can tell you that some of these SAME creatures haven''t been involved in Democracy that long themselves. WE WERE LIED to for God''s sake. HOW these people run their country is NONE of our Business. WE had better get BACK to being AMERICA folks before it''s to late. WE just do NOT do these things... I mean when your in your SIXTH year of a SIX month War and you are building Walls to keep people apart... Well it may well take 100 years. You can NOT put a gun to peoples heads and "Give" them anything. Sieg Heil Bush

[mcvet]

Until these people learn to play nice again hopefully temp walls are better then not being able to go outside at all. No different then out home neighborhood gated comunities here. Big iron fences with locked gates and guards except we wanted them.

Posted by lewiston14 at 10:47 AM : Jun 27, 2008
+ report abuse

I assume the folks IN YOUR community made that decision didn''t you? I can also assume that if the Russians had invaded and ORDERED that wall put up you might have a totally different view of it now wouldn''t you?? SIEG HEIL BUSH!!

[lewiston14]

Yes Vet the choice is ours but our fence is there for a different reason.

[j-whitman]

Pensacola88,,, Guess what ?? -- We''ve been fighting segregation here in the USA for over 200 years & still are fighting it ----- Barrier Wals is not security progress

[j-whitman]

Nothing in Iraq is what Bush or McBush says it is, not even close

[cathaleen]

When you read this column, you would think that the ****** and Sunnis got along so well before the war. That is BS. They have always hated one another and Sadam would keep them apart by arresting and torturing the ******.

[cathaleen]

When you read this column, you would think that the ****** and Sunnis got along so well before the war. That is BS. They have always hated one another and Sadam would keep them apart by arresting and torturing the ******.

[hermitdave]

What irony that the United States would be the major cause of humans behind walls. Wasn''t it Ronnie Reagan who said "TEAR DOWN THAT WALL"? Here in Ocean Beach California we now have what I call Camp Gitmo drinking compounds. Our new no drinking on the beach laws only allow drinking behind large fenced in areas. So those of legal drinking age can pass through the GUARDS get their WRIST BANDS and enjoy a cold beer as they look out through the wire fence at the non drinking people. Of course the lemmings accept all this as part of their government protecting them. Sadly they will not wake until the big concrete walls.

[j-whitman]

hermitdave,,,, Ah, good old OB.. Deja Vu

[lewiston14]

cathaleen: I think everybody hates everybody over there. For maybe the last 10,000+ years?

Vet you take your PTSD pill today? You sound all wound up. Go have a beer and chill man. Gee

ps: I dont think Russia is going to show up anytime soon. nuts

[lewiston14]

hermitdave: You got to find another beach man. All the years I went to the beach (im on the great lakes) other side of the country always took my cooler and never had a problem. They dont like glass bottles though.

[j-whitman]

OB needs fences, It''s always been a party town.

[j-whitman]

Tear down those walls, they only provide an illusion of security.

[underdogus10]

j-whitman = weapons of mass distraction

[inventagod2]

More twisted disinformation coming from the US War Department...
Believe nothing you read about the Iraq Oil War.

[underdogus10]

Tear down those walls, they only provide an illusion of security.

Posted by j-whitman but you and your fellow liberals want the border fence with MEXICO hmm? cowards

[j-whitman]

underdogus10,,, How about that ?? -- Weapons of Mass Destruction rapidly turned into Weapons of Mass Deception --- Not something to be proud of

Who would have guessed ?? - Obama & anyone with a tiny bit of common sense.

[j-whitman]

underdogus10,,,, You don''t want a border fence ?? 1 out of 5 Border Patrol agents are faced with violence every time they go out - We have a major drug war on our border in many states, human trafficing continues.

In Iraq these are not border fences -- these are only an ilusion of security segregating citizens & tribes & families -- No progress with anything

[inventagod2]

''The U.S. military defends the walls''

This is the Bu$h view of Democracy?
Prepare youselves...

[underdogus10]

j-whitman " We have a major drug war on our border " STOP consuming,using,inhaling,DRUGS!! b.astards!!

[underdogus10]

NO I DON''T WANT A BORDER FENCE with MEXICO what is wrong with you idiots? MEXICO supplies us with OIL!!

[underdogus10]

news flash: a barrel of oil hit $142.60 ..Jwhitman get ready for 7 dollars a gal,and for war with Iran

[underdogus10]

j-whitman and you want a border with Mexico ? ha,ha, you friggin ***!!

[j-whitman]

underdogus10,,,, So if you think we don''t need a fence on our border, how can you say fences in Iraq could possibly work ????

[j-whitman]

underdogus10,,, You actualy think we are going to war with Iran ??? Maybe you should tell the White House, they don''t think so. They are engaged in dialog with Iran, it''s part of the solution to Iraq''s stabilization.

[j-whitman]

libsluv2spit,,, Not this Calif. liberal --- I''ve always seen gated commuinities as a weakness & inability to solve community poblems & a source of exclusion in our society.

[midland666]

Mr SHRUB!!!!

Tear Down these walls..........

[midland666]

Someone is making $$$ off of wall building.

[underdogus10]

midland666 go get a job and you can make $$$ bum!

[underdogus10]

midland666 pinche pendejo!

[j-whitman]

underdogus10,,, Go pinche your own pendejo

[underdogus10]

by j-whitman he,he = )

[incog-nito]

Yes they do help reduce violent, but these walls will also over time further alienate ethnic and sectarian groups from one another. Unfortunately this will have the opposite effect of what we want, a united, peaceful Iraq. Over time these ethnic groups will want to stick their own and not have to risk living will other groups. The partition of Iraq will be inevitable.

[incog-nito]

Yes they do help reduce violent, but these walls will also over time further alienate ethnic and sectarian groups from one another. Unfortunately this will have the opposite effect of what we want, a united, peaceful Iraq. Over time these ethnic groups will want to stick their own and not have to risk living will other groups. The partition of Iraq will be inevitable.

[liberalme]

libsluv2spit,,, Not this Calif. liberal --- I''''ve always seen gated commuinities as a weakness & inability to solve community poblems & a source of exclusion in our society.

Posted by j-whitman

Gated communities are nothing more than high end projects!

[trillion1]

How many walls did Saddam have to build?

[bagdadshere2]

"They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison. "

Better safe and sorrow. Its better to live like in a prison than

[bagdadshere2]

"They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison. "

Better safe and sorrow. Its better to live like in a prison than die.

[deacon20081]

The wall design; sure sounds like it resembles the design of the Livestock Yards.

[sgtrds-e4]

And THIS is success? What a joke!

[sgtrds-e4]

"They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison. "

Better safe and sorrow. Its better to live like in a prison than die.

Posted by BagdadsHere2 at 05:55 PM : Jun 27, 2008

That''s one of the most ignorant effing things ever posted here. NO it is NOT better! It is better to die free then to live in a prison! REAL Americans know that!