[casi] News, 26/03-02/04/03 (6)

[Peter Brooke <pbrooke@DELETETHISukonline.co.uk>]

News, 26/03-02/04/03 (6)

THE SIEGE OF BASRA

*  Reports of uprising in Basra exaggerated, British army officer says
*  Iraqi troops fire on civilians fleeing Basra in thousands: British
spokesmen
*  Several UK Soldiers 'Kidnapped' in Basra - Officer
*  Thousands flee Basra in search of food and water
*  Iraqis bring aid to Basra
*  Iraqis loot captured Baath party offices outside Basra
*  British Forces Use James Bond Code Names
*  British soldiers free Kenyan drivers captured, beaten and held in school

FIRST TASTE OF FREEDOM

*  Resentment, Relief, and Resistance
*  Iraqi doctors ask invading troops to supply needed medicine
*  Britain and US at odds over port rebuilding project
*  Exiles support allies at port
*  Where water may win the war...but tragedy blights fight for friendship


THE SIEGE OF BASRA

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/5499797.htm

*  REPORTS OF UPRISING IN BASRA EXAGGERATED, BRITISH ARMY OFFICER SAYS
by Michael Martinez and Liz Sly
The State, from Chicago Tribune, 27th March

OUTSIDE BASRA, Iraq - (KRT) - A British army officer said Thursday that
reports of a civilian uprising in Basra were exaggerated and that militiamen
loyal to Saddam Hussein were intimidating residents and Iraqi soldiers into
opposing U.S. and British forces.

As smoke rose over the city Thursday, thousands of civilians in search of
food and water streamed across a bridge leading out of town. The United
Nations warns of a humanitarian crisis in Basra, which has been under siege
and short of power for days. Red Cross officials said they had partially
restored water; residents said it was still hard to find.

Coalition aircraft and artillery destroyed more Iraqi armored vehicles
trying to leave the city, the unofficial capital of oil-rich southern Iraq.

Air Marshal Bryan Burridge, commander of British forces in the Persian Gulf,
told a briefing at Central Command headquarters that Basra remained trapped
in "a very difficult and confused situation" and that paramilitaries had
carried out "exemplar executions."

"These militias, probably Baath Party, go through neighborhoods and round up
soldiers, put them in the tanks and say go that way," Burridge said. "This
isn't a fighting force that really knows its business. It's not organized,
but someone is trying to organize it. They coerce their families. They go
into houses and hold guns to their heads."

As a result, Iraqi troops are driven into what amount to suicide missions,
British forces said. The estimated 120 tanks, armored personnel carriers and
other vehicles that tried to leave Basra overnight Wednesday were hit from
the air by U.S. Navy F-18 Super Hornets and Royal Air Force Harrier ground
attack jets. British artillery pounded them from the ground.

U.S. and British forces have been reluctant to venture into Basra largely to
lessen the threat to civilians. Instead they have positioned themselves on
bridges and other positions outside Basra.

"We've got potential attackers all over the place and the place needs to be
cleaned up," said Capt. Richard Coates of the 1st Fusiliers Battle Group as
an air battery fired upon Basra. "(But) we didn't want to flatten Basra or
take out the infrastructure. That would be counterproductive."

Coalition forces are even allowing suspected Iraqi forces to escape Basra
through a northern highway in hopes that their removal would make an
eventual takeover of Basra less bloody.

"We'd rather dislodge them," Coates said. "There's no point in cornering
rats."

Coates said reports of an insurgency against the government in Basra this
week was no more than a gathering of "40 to 50 people standing on a street
corner." But the British also said that Saddam supporters had begun shelling
their own people to discourage dissent.

Opposition groups say they are advising their supporters in the south not to
attempt to rebel against Saddam after the small insurgency was put down.

According to Bayan Jabor, the Damascus-based spokesman for the main Shiite
opposition group, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq,
local anger began to rise on Monday after Republican Guards, on the orders
of Majid, executed seven local Baath Party militia members and officials for
attempting to desert. Two more were executed on Tuesday.

When the British attacked the Baath Party headquarters later that day,
people living in the immediate vicinity took this as a signal to revolt.
Some took to the streets shouting "death to Saddam." But they were not
joined by other people in the city and government forces pounded the area
with mortars and artillery, suppressing the uprising.

"They killed many, and the others returned home," said Jabor, who received
accounts of the incident from supporters living in Basra.

He and other blame the suppression of the mini-revolt Tuesday on one of
Saddam's most feared and hated hatchet men, General Ali Hassan al-Majid,
nicknamed "Chemical Ali" because of his role in ordering the 1988 gas attack
against Kurds in the northern city of Halabja.

Saddam put Al-Majid in charge of operations in southern Iraq on the eve of
the war, an early sign that the regime intended to fight to defend the
south, and not fold, as some U.S. military planners had predicted.

Jabor said he thought it was unlikely any further uprisings would be
attempted by southern Shiites, at least until Iraqis are sure Saddam's hold
on power is crumbling. "People are afraid. We're telling them not to revolt
because the situation is still not clear. As long as Saddam is still in
power it is too dangerous to make a rebellion," said Jabor.

(Chicago Tribune correspondent Hugh Dellios contributed to this report from
Doha, Qatar.)


http://www.metimes.com/2K3/issue2003-13/reg/iraqi_troops_fire.htm

*  IRAQI TROOPS FIRE ON CIVILIANS FLEEING BASRA IN THOUSANDS: BRITISH
SPOKESMEN
Middle East Times, 28th March

KUWAIT CITY, MARCH 28 (AFP) : Iraqi forces opened fire on civilians trying
to flee the southern city of Basra in their thousands on Friday, British
military officials charged.

"The Black Watch are engaging them and doing their best to protect the
civilians," Flight Lieutenant Peter Darling told AFP, referring to the
Scottish regiment.

Darling said it was not known if any civilians had been wounded in the
firing. The scale of the shooting by the Iraqi forces loyal to President
Saddam Hussein, who have been surrounded by US and British troops, was also
unclear.

"We do not have any information about casualties yet."

Another British spokeswoman, Flight Lieutenant Emma Thomas, put the number
of civilians trying to flee at "two to three thousand."

"They are known to be trying to flee from the west," Thomas told AFP.

"We have been trying to return fire. Obviously it is difficult because we
are trying to avoid civilian casualties."

British forces claim to have surrounded the city but have continued to meet
resistance from Iraqi militia.

The Black Watch Thursday destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks which had tried to break
out of the cordon surrounding Basra, a military spokesman said.

The troops were setting up aid centres on the outskirts of Basra on Friday
with food and water for hundreds of fleeing civilians after pledging to give
them "safe passage" out of the city, another British spokesman said.

"We are setting up centres, giving them basics ­ food and water," Major Will
MacKinlay told AFP. "We have troops all around Basra. They (the civilians)
could be leaving in any direction."


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2470343

*  SEVERAL UK SOLDIERS 'KIDNAPPED' IN BASRA - OFFICER
Reuters, 29th March

BASRA, Iraq, March 29: A British officer in southern Iraq said on Saturday
four or five British soldiers had been kidnapped in the city of Basra on
Friday night.

"They were kidnapped there last night," the officer in the 2nd Royal Tank
Regiment, on the edge of the besieged city, said without giving details.

A spokesman at the U.S.-led war headquarters in the Gulf state of Qatar said
British forces had gone into Basra to assess the level of resistance from
forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein but said there were no reports of
missing troops.

"There are no reports of any soldiers missing," said Group Captain Al
Lockwood.

Basra, Iraq's second city, is ringed by U.S. and British tanks, artillery
and armored personnel carriers. On Friday British officials said Iraqi
forces fired on about 2,000 civilians trying to flee fighting and a
humanitarian crisis.

"We're continuing to probe into the city to find out the disposition of
these paramilitary forces," Lockwood said.

"We have various intelligence sources that tell us that there is indeed a
reign of terror still extant within Basra."

"The paramilitary, the Baath Party and those criminals that support it are
coercing people to fight against the coalition. We're actively degrading
them...reducing their ability to fight and we will continue to do so," he
told Reuters.

Reuters correspondent David Fox said a stream of people was leaving the city
but an even larger group was trying to get in, creating chaotic scenes at a
bridge on the edge of Basra where British soldiers had pulled up two tanks,
creating a narrow channel for people to pass through.

The soldiers were allowing women, children and old men into the city, but
were barring adult men. They were not stopping people leaving Basra.

"Basically men of fighting age are being kept out for the moment," a tank
commander with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment said.


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=391487

*  THOUSANDS FLEE BASRA IN SEARCH OF FOOD AND WATER
by David Fox and Paul Harris in Basra
The Independent, 28th March

Thousands of tired and thirsty civilians trudged out of the besieged
southern Iraqi city of Basra yesterday in a desperate search for food and
water.

Families drove ramshackle vehicles or walked in single file down a rail
track past British Army checkpoints on the western side of the city.

"It's been 'pow, pow, pow' all the time," said Maklim Mohammed as he crossed
a main bridge leading south from the city, which stands at the confluence of
the Tigris and Euphrates. "I can't stand it. I'm nervous and I'm thirsty."

Basra's 1.5 million inhabitants have endured days without water. Red Cross
engineers have managed amid the battles around the city partly to restore a
water treatment centre that had been down since last Friday when cables
carrying electricity to the plant were cut by Allied bombardment. But most
homes still have no access to potable water. People have resorted to
collecting water from rivers around the city, which are polluted with
sewage, prompting warnings from the UN of a potential cholera epidemic.
Children are at risk from diarrhoea, which is already a big killer of Iraqi
children under five.

Most of those leaving yesterday were on foot without their belongings,
apparently seeking shelter with friends or relatives at Zubayr, 12 miles to
the south. Most were men who said they would try to return to Basra if they
could find supplies.

"We are very thirsty. Our families are very thirsty," one of those leaving
said. "Where can we find water? The British told us to go down the road
[south]."

In Zubayr the position was only marginally better. British and American
troops handed out bottled water to an agitated crowd who begged them for
more. Many said they had not had water for almost 10 days.

British troops stopped and searched those leaving Basra and individuals who
aroused suspicion, or were wearing military clothes, were held for
questioning in pens of barbed wire.

The refugees described a city that was tense but still in the grip of an
Iraqi military that had hidden large amounts of artillery and tanks in
civilian and commercial areas.

One British officer said, "It wouldn't be a bad thing if the whole
population left for a day or two and left the bad guys behind for us."


http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1085684,00.html

*  IRAQIS BRING AID TO BASRA
Sky News, 31st March

Crowds of Iraqi civillians forced their way through Coalition checkpoints on
the outskirts of the embattled southern city of Basra on Saturday to bring
food and water to desperate relatives.

Around 2,000 Iraqis flooded across the bridge into the city as cars, trucks,
taxis and carts loaded with supplies were eventually given permission to
pass through Coalition lines.

But the exodus of people fleeing the fighting and worsening conditions in
Basra also continues.

The city has had no water supply since the first days of the war when the
Coalition began its aerial and artillery bombardment of the town, and food
prices are reported to have trebled.

Patrick Nicholson of the Catholic Food Agency told Sky News that "the
biggest relief effort in living memory" would be needed to avert a massive
humanitarian disaster in southern Iraq.

But agencies cannot currently get into Iraq to begin a full scale relief
programme because fighting across the country is still too intense, he said.

Mr Nicholson welcomed news that Coalition troops had brought much needed
food to the town of Nasiriyah, around 100 miles north west of Basra and
scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

But he said aid agencies would be much better placed to distribute the aid
than "belligerent" Coalition troops.

"We can ensure that food, water and medical supplies do get through to those
most vulnerable.

"Unfortunately at the moment I doubt whether this is the case," Mr Nicholson
said.

Earlier in the week, British soldiers and the crowd they were distributing
food and water to in the southern town of Al Zubayr came under fire from
Iraqi militia forces.

Mr Nicholson said although food supplies in Basra are running low, access to
clean water is crucial.

"People die a lot quicker without water than without food," he said.

Major General Albert Whitley, the British officer trying to coordinate
military efforts with humanitarian relief operations, said a pipeline laid
from Kuwait to the southern port of Umm Qasr will open on Monday.

It will bring 600,000 gallons of water per day which can be trucked into
other areas by military vehicles, Whitley said.

Mr Nicholson also said hospitals were running low on medical supplies
because of the fighting and had specifically requested more first aid kits.

Around 650 tonnes of aid from Britain arrived in Iraq on supply ship the Sir
Galahad on Thursday.

A spokesman for Christian Aid described the arrival of the Sir Galahad as a
"pinprick on what is a huge problem".


http://www.haveeru.com.mv/english/news_show.phtml?id=1251&search=&find=

*  IRAQIS LOOT CAPTURED BAATH PARTY OFFICES OUTSIDE BASRA

NEAR BASRA, March 31 (AFP) British soldiers poised to invade Iraq's major
southern city of Basra let a mob loot the local Baath party headquarters
Monday to show the US-led war was aimed at helping civilians and ridding the
country of the regime's supporters.

The building -- situated five kilometres (three miles) to the southeast of
the city near an oil refinery -- was filled with vast stocks of food,
according to troops who took part in the pre dawn raid to take the area.

The supplies, including sacks of rice and grain that came from humanitarian
aid deliveries, were quickly carried off by a crowd of civilians from nearby
Basra suburbs who have been suffering under 12 years of UN sanctions and
penury caused by the war.

"Normally we would stop looting because it is a sign that things have got
out of control and law and order has broken down," Captain Alex Cartwright,
a 28-year-old Grenadier Guardsman attached to the 1st Battalion Royal
Regiment of Fusiliers, said.

"But in this case we decided that to allow it would send a more powerful
message -- that we are in control now, not the Baath Party."

The British forces took the complex and surrounding area as part of a
concerted advance on Basra itself.

Much of the offensive has targeted Baath party members and buildings and
positions held by paramilitaries loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

US and British commanders believe that killing members of those groups will
loosen Saddam's control over the population, which they say is based on
instilling fear.

Cartwright said that, as the looting was underway, some of the civilians
pointed out suspected Baath party members in their midst.

"The villagers pointed out to us a number of men who were considerably
better dressed and groomed then everyone else and who appeared to be
agitated by what they saw.

"It was also noticeable how the locals' body language and attitude changed
-- they became more fearful, more cowed," he said.

Those identified were asked into the building to "talk" to British officers,
at which point they were immediately arrested and searched, he said.

They were then led, handcuffed, into the back of a British armoured vehicle
in full sight of the locals.

Cartwright added that journalists were not allowed to view the suspects in
line with Geneva Convention rules governing prisoners of war.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=540&ncid=736&e=10&u=/ap/200
30331/ap_on_re_mi_ea/war_british_code_names

*  BRITISH FORCES USE JAMES BOND CODE NAMES
by Jack Garland
Yahoo, 31st March

LONDON - For British soldiers fighting in Iraq, the code names involved in
their mission are hard to forget ‹ for anyone who has ever seen a James Bond
movie.

Crackling over the British communication equipment come references to
"Operation James" and its military targets, code-named "Goldfinger,"
"Blofeld" and "Connery."

By alluding to James Bond, its star Sean Connery and some of the heroes and
villains in the 007 movies, British commanders have several goals in mind.

They include confusing the enemy, helping British soldiers remember the code
words and boosting military morale with a little humor.

"`Operation James' is an objective named after something the soldiers will
remember easily," said Paul Beaver, an independent military expert in
London. "James Bond is a No. 1 Brit, and he's a hero."

So who chose that name?

"Probably a commander on the ground," said Ian Kemp, the news editor of
Jane's Defense Weekly. "It's not surprising the army uses names like this.
Some British camps in the first Gulf War were named after characters in
'Blackadder,'" a popular TV comedy in Britain starring Rowan Atkinson. "It's
definitely designed to give a morale boost."

"I think it's just yet again an exhibition of the British sense of humor"
Capt. Al Lockwood, the British armed forces spokesman in Qatar, said with a
straight face.

By contrast, American code names in the Persian Gulf ‹ such as "Operation
Free Iraq," "Enduring Freedom" and mission titles like "Noble Eagle" and
"Valiant Strike" ‹ seem aimed at inspiring support.

Often chosen by politicians in Washington, they include mouthfuls such as
"Operation Provide Comfort" ‹ to aid Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq ‹ or
"Operation Uphold Democracy," in Haiti.

In general, the British don't use "Operation Free Iraq." Their version of
that name is "Operation Telic," featuring a little-known word derived from
the Greek that means "aim," "purpose" or "ultimate end."

The word "telic" was chosen at random for security reasons, said a spokesman
at Britain's Ministry of Defense.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,926981,00.html

*  BRITISH SOLDIERS FREE KENYAN DRIVERS CAPTURED, BEATEN AND HELD IN SCHOOL
by Gethin Chamberlain with the Black Watch, near Basra
The Guardian, 1st April

Two Kenyan truck drivers kidnapped 10 days ago outside the town of Zubayr in
southern Iraq were rescued yesterday when British troops burst into the
school in which they were being been held.

David Shira Mukaria and Jakubu Maina Kamau were kept blindfolded, with their
hands and feet bound together and without food and water.

They said they had spent their time in captivity praying for rescue or
death, listening to their captors discussing whether or not to kill them.

The men were abducted by Iraqi militiamen after becoming separated from a
food convoy heading for the southern seaport of Umm Qasr.

They were rescued yesterday morning when British troops from the Black
Watch, which is in control of the town, were tipped off by townspeople.

Yesterday, the men said they were relieved to have been rescued, but
criticised the security around the convoy which had allowed them to become
separated and lost. Mr Mukaria, 53, said they had been in a convoy of 18
trucks which had taken food to the US camp and had been heading back to Camp
Rhino in Kuwait when they became separated.

"The other trucks finished unloading before us. On the way back we lost the
way. The convoy switched off the lights and they were driving too fast," he
said.

He said they were outside Basra at about 11pm when a man appeared in the
road with a torch.

"He shone a torch at us and asked us where we were going.

"We said Kuwait and after that 20 people came to us with their guns. They
beat us, tied us up, tied our hands and feet and covered our eyes and they
took everything we had," he said.

"They kept us there for 10 days. We had no food or water, nothing. We
decided because we are Christians we would ask God to save us or take our
souls to heaven. We prayed to God every day.

"We could not see them but we heard them talking. Some of them were speaking
in English.

"Some of them said 'Kill them', some of them said 'No'. We just prayed and
prayed."

Mr Kamau, who had rope burns on his wrists when rescued, said that yesterday
morning he believed his prayers had been answered.

"I told them God will open this door and let us out," he said. "Half-an-hour
later someone opened the door and ran away. When they opened the door we did
not go out because we did not know if they were still there. But two hours
later the army came. They came in and found us in the room."

Sergeant Bob Barnet, of the Black Watch, said: "We got a signal that two
guys were being held in a building and had been kidnapped. We went to the
place where they were being held and searched the building."

Sgt Barnet, originally from Annan in Dumfriesshire, said they believed that
the pair had been held by militiamen. They pulled up outside the school in
two Warrior armoured vehicles and the soldiers ran into the building,
kicking down doors, but found that it - and a stockpile of weapons - had
been abandoned.

Guardsman Mark Gray, from Reading, said: "We found munitions and Iraqi
uniforms, Duschkas [heavy machine guns] and some petrol bombs."

The two drivers said they worked for the Springfood company in Saudi Arabia
which had been contracted to carry water and food supplies for the US
military.

They said that they were hoping to get their truck and their passports back
and were prepared to return to Iraq if they could be guaranteed a better
escort next time.

"We are not afraid. We ask God to bless the people who took us," said Mr
Mukaria.

Pooled dispatch from Gethin Chamberlin of the Scotsman


FIRST TASTE OF FREEDOM

http://aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/March%202003%2
0News/27%20news/Resentment,%20relief%20and%20resistance%20%20aljazeerah.info
.htm

*  RESENTMENT, RELIEF, AND RESISTANCE
Essam Al-Ghalib
Arab News (Saudi Arabia), 27th March

UMM QASR, 27 March 2003 ‹ A day after US/UK forces entered the residential
area of this small town, with a population of 45,000, local Iraqis here told
Arab News that they are still hungry and thirsty.

And as night fell machine-gun fire and mortar shells could be heard in the
surrounding areas, suggesting that US/UK troops still have not "secured" the
deep port as the Western media has reported.

The only food and rations getting to the people are coming to Safwan, some
17 kilometers away from the port on the Kuwait-Iraq border. They are being
delivered by the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society.

When the trucks arrived in Safwan yesterday afternoon, over 350 men, women
and children immediately descended on them, fighting and crawling over one
another in search of food.

A chant started among the group that rose over the sound of the trucks and
the passing armored convoy. The chant was: "With our blood and our souls we
will fight and die for you, Saddam." But one student said in broken English
as he made the thumbs-up sign. "We need water. America good, British good,"
he told Arab News.

Small fights broke out between different groups fighting for the rations,
and a number of people suffered minor injuries.

Scores of hungry Iraqis in this bleak border town scrambled onto the backs
of three trucks and started throwing out boxes of food and water, many of
which split open on the ground or landed in pools of rainwater.

Officials from the Kuwait Red Crescent Society admitted they had been
overwhelmed by the response. Some 21,000 meals were packed into the convoy
including bread, flour, tea, water and oil.

Armed US troops were on hand to oversee the delivery of supplies.

Red Crescent official Hani Al-Jazzaf told reporters: "I said, 'please,
brothers, sisters, we will bring you more food tomorrow.' But they are
afraid we won't come back."

Nabil Ali Hussein, a father of six, told Arab News that his family was
desperately in need of food. "We are very hungry. I wanted two boxes but
only one box good," he said in English as he sat proudly on his white box
taped with the Red Crescent logo.

An American soldier who stood at some distance from the trucks looked on in
despair at the scenes of chaos. But US Staff Sergeant Johnny Monds later
told reporters that the show of support for Saddam was in contrast to the
reception which US and British soldiers who invaded Iraq last week to
overthrow the Iraqi leader had been given over the last couple of days here.

Simon Miller of Britain's Royal Military Police said some locals had managed
to grab up to half a dozen boxes. "We were asked to help with the security.
We started by trying to push them away and realized that that was
pointless," Miller said.

"There were just too many of them, they are very eager, and they are not
very supportive of us," he said in reference to the pro-Saddam chants.

"People are stockpiling. Is that fair? I noticed that some of the families,
the weaker ones, the women, were being pushed aside," Miller said.

The end result seemed to be that, despite the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society's
best efforts, there were still hundreds of families in Safwan without food
or water. The situation is the same in Umm Qasr, but there are no rations
being delivered there.

The road from Safwan to Umm Qasr is littered with abandoned and burned out
vehicles. At the military check point five kilometers outside Umm Qasr, a
soldier with the Australian forces expressed doubt that our convoy of
journalists would be allowed into Umm Qasr as there were 20,000 Iraqi
prisoners of war being held there, according to him. At the edge of Umm Qasr
is a wall with a triple sized poster of Saddam Hussein. On one poster,
someone ‹ presumably an American soldier ‹ had spray painted: "Los Angeles
Raiders". Umm Qasr is a small community. The main sources of livelihood for
the people here are the port itself and a cement factory. Both are now
closed. Iraqi children, some as young as three, were running about asking
the arriving journalists for any rations that could be spared.

All the stores in Umm Qasr have been looted or shuttered. After looting and
storing the supplies at their homes, locals then prepare to sell them at
inflated prices on a growing black market. A packet of cigarettes is
currently being sold for 3,500 Iraqi dinars.

When asked whether they favored a regime change planned, the people, mostly
Shiites, said they were in favor of the removal of Saddam and the
introduction of a new government ‹ but they expected help from the coalition
forces after Umm Qasr fell.

"If what the US forces are doing here is any indication of the times to
come, then we would rather have Saddam," one of them told Arab News.

As night fell on Umm Qasr, sporadic machine-gun fire could be heard in the
distance. Bright flashes of exploding munitions could also be seen. Twice in
the space of an hour flares were launched, suddenly bathing the town in a
blanket of light.


http://www.haveeru.com.mv/english/news_show.phtml?id=1239&search=&find=

*  IRAQI DOCTORS ASK INVADING TROOPS TO SUPPLY NEEDED MEDICINE

UMM QASR, Iraq, March [28 AFP?] Iraqi doctors in the southern port town of
Umm Qasr on Friday handed over to British troops a list of urgently needed
medicine and equipment as the first aid shipment was due to dock.

"The three crucial problems are electricity, water and food supplies," said
the director of the town's Port Hospital, Doctor Mohammad Maizer.

He said the lack of fresh drinking water had led to many ailments in the
town of 40,000 people as residents turned to pipes contaminated by sewage.

Food was also short but not as much of a problem because many families had
stockpiled months of government rations ahead of the US-led war on their
country.

Maizer said he hoped the much-delayed arrival of the British ship Sir
Galahad later Friday, with its load of 500 tonnes of food and water, would
finally herald the start of the humanitarian bridge long promised by
Washington and London.

But in one of his wards, bitterness at the conflict and the delay in getting
basic necessities had already set in.

Ali Walli, a 55-year-old civilian who was being treated for a shrapnel wound
to his left leg caused when allied forces fired 10 rockets into his
neighbourhood to suppress a lone sniper on Sunday, said: "I think the
Americans are the cause of this unhappiness. I blame them."

His son, Amin Ali, 23, lay in another bed with a similar injury.

Next to them was another man, Manaf Ibrahim, 24, who said he had been shot
in the back by a US or British machine-gunner while making electrical
repairs near his home.

Ibrahim's 17-year-old sister Ayat was fatally shot in the neck as she rushed
to help him.

Doctor Maizer said that, since the start of the war March 20, his hospital
had received 30 patients and five bodies as a result of combat in the Umm
Qasr region. Twenty-five of them were civilians, including four of the dead.

The others were Iraqi soldiers, members of units that had since deserted and
melted away back to their homes and families, Maizer said.

There were no signs in Umm Qasr of an enthusiastic welcome for the British
and US forces which have holed up in walled compounds in two different
areas.

Men and boys swarm around the properties and military or media vehicles
begging persistently for water, cigarettes or to make phone calls to
relatives in Europe or the United States.

But, with suspected members of the Iraqi security services or Baath Party
milling among them, few make any overt signs of support for the invaders.

Instead the general feeling is of begrudging acceptance born of necessity --
the new arrivals are the only potential source of vital supplies.

Doctor Maizer explained that fear that the allied troops would leave and
President Saddam Hussein's forces would return with a vengance was behind
much of the reluctance.

"They are afraid. The situation is still unstable, they don't know what will
happen in the future, or how long the war will go on," he said.

But he added: "All the population, I think, wants to get rid of the regime.

"No one wanted foreigners to come to this country. But we hope this
so-called 'liberation' will now happen."

One of the wounded patients, Walli, remained sceptical.

"They (the United States and Britain) said they were coming for the
liberation of the country, but all they do is take the region without doing
any good," he said.


http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=391489

*  BRITAIN AND US AT ODDS OVER PORT REBUILDING PROJECT
by Donald Macintyre in Qatar
The Independent, 28th March

The first signs of tension between Britain and America over the rebuilding
and running of post-war Iraq have emerged with the award of a $4.8m (£3m)
contract to manage the captured port of Umm Qasr.

British forces are determined to engage an Iraqi director and staff to run
the country's only deep-water port, which is expected to provide the gateway
for humanitarian aid and military supplies.

But the US Agency for International Development has already awarded the
contract to Stevedoring Services of America, a Seattle company. The British
Army is pressing ahead with its plan to reinstall the man who directed the
port before the Allied invasion. Britain sees this as the first big test of
the proclaimed Allied intention to ensure that Iraqi resources are used for
the benefit of the Iraqi people.

While senior British officers are guarded about the implications, they have
moved swiftly to ensure that Iraqis are seen to benefit from the port's
regeneration.

Although Umm Qasr has a population of 30,000, the port is about the size of
Dover and became the most important in the country after the docks in Basra
were destroyed in the Iran-Iraq war.

The man who ran the port until the Allied invasion ­ which was the main
maritime conduit for the oil-for-food programme ­ has been identified among
captives taken when British troops moved into the city. He is likely to be
back in his old job after careful vetting. British sources would not
disclose details, but the man is likely to have quickly volunteered his
identity to British officers.

The US Agency for International Development announced on Monday that
Stevedoring Services of America had won a contract to "provide an initial
port assessment, develop improvement plans ... and supply technical
expertise to ensure an adequate flow of through shipment".

A spokesman added: "The company will be responsible for the port pilots who
will guide ships up the channel, and will manage the access of trucking
companies to the port and establish a system of controls to avoid theft and
corruption."

The award caused considerable irritation among British companies aggrieved
that their US counterparts appeared to be receiving preferential treatment.
P&O made a bid for the contract but was rejected. One British service source
suggested yesterday that the contract could be limited in duration, leaving
the port's long-term future in Iraqi hands.

Umm Qasr may be the first of many tests for complex and unresolved issues on
the ownership and control of assets in post-war Iraq. The captured port is
likely to be in a "British zone" for as long as military control lasts,
which could further complicate matters.


http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/news.asp?ArticleID=82808

*  EXILES SUPPORT ALLIES AT PORT
Gulf News, 1st April

Umm Qasr, Reuters, 01-04-2003: Habib, a former Iraqi army lieutenant, has
been working as a forklift driver in a warehouse in Lincoln, Nebraska since
arriving in the United States in 1995.

Now he's back in his home country wearing the uniform of the Free Iraqi
Forces, a contingent of exiles recruited and trained by the United States to
support the U.S.-British military campaign to overthrow President Saddam
Hussain. "I'm helping them because I want to help my people," he said
yesterday.

Habib, 39, was one of several uniformed FIF members at Umm Qasr port, now
secured by U.S.-led forces, to help process local Iraqi workers who will be
hired for jobs at the docks or working for the American and British forces.
The U.S. military insists the FIF will have no combat role.

Their mission is to liaise between the U.S.-led forces and local Iraqis, and
help in humanitarian aid and relief programmes.

The first exiles landed in Umm Qasr about a week ago but, because of the
security situation in the southeast, where forces loyal to Saddam are
resisting U.S. and British troops, their role so far has been limited.

The force was recruited from Iraqi exiles in the U.S. and Western Europe
under the 1998 Iraqi Liberation Act and underwent month-long training by the
U.S. army at a military airbase in Taszar, Hungary, earlier this year.

Many were linked to the Iraqi Democratic Opposition, a sometimes fractious
exile organisation.
The Hungarian government, a Nato ally of the U.S., gave permission for up to
3,000 exiles to be trained at Taszar, but to date far fewer have gone
through the camp.

Many of them have built new lives in the United States or elsewhere, but
still have family and relations in the Middle East. Some have military
experience, most are civilians.

Habib said he deserted from the Iraqi army after a Shiite revolt in the
south following Iraq's expulsion from Kuwait in 1991 by a U.S.-led
international coalition. That uprising was brutally crushed by Saddam. Habib
escaped to Kurdish-run northern Iraq before travelling to the United States.

Zaib was a civil engineer in nearby Basra, Iraq's second city, before he
fled after the uprising. He now lives in St. Louis, Missouri. "Basically our
job is a civilian-military operation, trying to help the people,
distribution work, sorting out problems for the commanders," he said.

There was an unexpected reunion for him on Sunday - among those lining up
for work was an old friend he had not seen for 12 years. The two hugged and
kissed in delight and surprise.

The FIF has been trained in self-defence and can carry sidearms. Those
interviewed at the port did not look like potential frontline warriors - the
force has an average age of 38. So far though, contact with the locals has
been limited. Some members have accompanied British forces in patrols around
Umm Qasr in a bid to win peoples' trust and confidence.

But the resistance mounted by Iraqi forces have dimmed U.S. and British
hopes that they would be greeted joyfully as liberators.                


http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=385692003

*  WHERE WATER MAY WIN THE WAR...BUT TRAGEDY BLIGHTS FIGHT FOR FRIENDSHIP
by Gethin Chamberlain
The Scotsman, 2nd April

TAM O' Shanter perched atop his head, pistol secured in its holster on his
belt, steel-rimmed glasses pushed back on to the bridge of his nose,
Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Riddell-Webster, the commanding officer of the Black
Watch, is striding through the crowded market place in the centre of the
town of Az Zubayr.

Yesterday, this street was thought still too dangerous to drive down in a
soft-skinned Land Rover, but the CO has decided - enough is enough.

After days of sitting back and watching his troops come under attack from
militia men armed with mortars, AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades, he has
decided that he and his men are not going to be forced to hide behind the
safety of the armoured plates of their Warriors any longer.

The order has gone out that the Black Watch is going to patrol the streets
of Az Zubayr. On foot. The dozen or so officers and infantrymen chosen to
accompany him on the first sortie into the town have been told that they can
keep their helmets on if they wish, but he will be donning his "T.o.S" with
the distinctive red hackle of the Scottish regiment. A quintessential
British moment.

It is 8am and already the town is teeming with people pouring in from all
around in their battered trucks laden with tomatoes and their carts towed by
donkeys.

Men stand in huddles, talking and watching other men standing in huddles.
Women in their black chadors carry empty plastic containers towards the
place where the water bowsers park up. There are children everywhere,
dark-haired, dark-eyed, dirty but cheerful.

It is a fine morning, the temperature already soaring to the high 20s. On
the streets, Warrior crews keep watch over the entrances to the town.
Challenger tanks stand on the open ground that sprawls in front of the
market place, guns pointed into the open country beyond.

Out of the gate stride the British officers, the CO in the lead, chatting
earnestly to the man by his side, divisional staff officer Lt-Col Roger
Warren, a fluent Arabic speaker. They stroll forward side by side, heading
towards the blue-domed mosque, past the place where the mortars fell and
scattered the crowd gathered for the first attempt to distribute aid last
week, heading straight for the centre of the town.

Those gathered round the trucks of tomatoes look up, bemused, as the men
approach, but the CO does not break his stride. Hand outstretched, he greets
the first wary Iraqis on the edge of the gathering. The crowd parts,
engulfing the men, the soldiers given the thankless task of protecting a man
apparently determined to place himself at maximum risk trying to hold back
the curious throng.

Hands in his pockets now, the CO listens as Lt-Col Warren addresses the
crowd. They are not there to hurt anyone, he tells them, they are there to
help the people of the town. Around them, the crowd is growing in number,
children pushing between the men, eager to see these strange foreign
soldiers in their unfamiliar hats who have appeared in their town and driven
out the other army.

Now the crowd has found its voice. They talk all at once, gesturing with
their hands, pointing to their mouths. Water is the most important thing,
Lt-Col Warren tells the CO - they say they want water. It is coming soon,
the CO assures them. We understand, he tells them. The men jabber at him
again. The electricity is broken, they say. A team of engineers is on its
way to fix it, the CO replies. He wants to know if there are any water
engineers in the crowd, someone who can tell him where the pumps can be
found, how to switch them back on.

Lt-Col Warren translates, but the men are talking over each other, each with
his own point to make. A man with a luxuriant moustache in pristine white
jelabbah shoves his way to the front. People have been taken prisoner by the
British, he says. The British are too aggressive, with all their tanks and
their guns. He is angry, little flecks of spittle glistening on his
moustache, shouting and waving his hands. The people are afraid of all the
troops, he says.

Hands on hips, the CO leans his head forward to listen to the translation,
Lt-Col Warren breaking off to shush the crowd . Finally, he looks up. There
is no need to be afraid of us, he tells them, once the shooting has stopped
we are here to be your friends. They must learn to trust the British, they
are there to help.

But the men are not convinced. They are still afraid because the British are
here, they say. The big boss of the water engineers is afraid of the
British, he is afraid to come out. Everyone is desperate for water.

We are surrounded by a mass of humanity, all clamouring for water. Each
newcomer says the same thing. They need water, they must have water. They
have not had water to drink, or wash for days. The heat and the smell of so
many bodies crushed together tells its own story.

Lt-Col Warren listens, interrupting occasionally, soaking up their anger.
They are still afraid, he tells the CO, whatever I say to them. They are
afraid of us and they are afraid of what will happen to them if we go away.
They say that the old regime is not gone away, just moved to Basra. When the
British leave, he explains, the people fear that the Baath Party will be
back.

The CO tries again. There will be no problem and there is no need to be
afraid as long as the militia go away, he says. The old regime is not coming
back. We are here to stay. There has been regime change. They have had a
difficult regime for 30 years, but now they are gone. He catches the eye of
the nearest soldier and a path is cleared, those behind the CO eased aside
to allow him passage, on again towards the centre of the town.

The heat is stifling as they make their way past the mosque, with its
blue-grey marble entrance and arched wooden doors, the finest building in
the town, the crowd singing and clapping, trailing in their wake like
disciples following some new prophet.

Picking their way through a group of men pumping up tyres at the roadside, a
young boy trying to run ahead stumbling, the CO grabbing his arm, steadying
him. On past a barber's shop, the men inside staring out, smiling at Lt-Col
Warren's greetings, past more trucks loaded with tomatoes, past an old man
sitting in the shade of a shop wall.

Next to a shattered shop-front, they stop, and the crowd gathers round
again. Bricks have fallen on to the pavement and the windows are gone. It
was a barber's shop, Lt-Col Warren explains. They say it was hit by a tank
shell.

Down the lane, there are ducks waddling through the rubbish piled outside
the buildings. Further along, a restaurant, its windows shattered.

The men want compensation. One says his car was destroyed by a tank. He was
in it, he says, but he survived. The CO looks him up and down, but the man
shows no signs of injury. You were lucky, he tells him. My men were being
shot at, he says - a week ago, there was war and we were fighting.

He walks on, unconvinced by their entreaties. This is the street where D
company faced a real battle, he recalls. They were being hit with rocket
propelled grenades from all sides. It is not so surprising that there was
some damage. They want compensation, but that's not the game he is in, he
tells them.

He walks on, past sandbagged bunkers next to bags of grain, bundles of herbs
stacked high on shop counters, brightly-coloured jars of spices, pyramids of
baby milk, bags of rice and lentils, bottles of Pepsi and orange fizzy
drinks emblazoned with Arabic script, past tables set out in the street
selling batteries and lighters and socks and cigarettes and plastic watering
cans and all the assorted oddments that can be found in markets anywhere in
the world.

Past piles of vegetables laid out on the side of the road, onions,
scallions, tomatoes, potatoes, covered in clouds of flies that rise up as
they walk by, past dozens of large silver fish, gutted and stinking in the
heat, through mounds of rubbish lying in the gutters and across the
pavement, past low mesh pens of chickens, past a stall grilling kebabs over
charcoal, the smells merging into each other, becoming one. They have plenty
of food, the CO says, slightly exasperated, they don't need more food.

Yesterday, when the army drove down the street, many of the shops were still
closed up, but now they are open again, life is returning to normal.

A man stops him, tells him everything is good, or would be, if only they had
water. Be patient, the CO says, be patient.

He asks what the man thinks of the town, wants to ask him what he thinks of
the regime but Lt-Col Warren warns there are too many people around for the
man's own good if he answers honestly. The man tells him it is a peaceful
area but people are afraid. Everyone is afraid of you, he tells the British
officers, pointing to the rubble left by the fighting. The fighting is over
now, the CO says.

On and on, past a cobbler working next to a pile of battered shoes, past a
barrow selling cigarettes - 50 cents, the man tells the CO, or 2,025 dinar,
a fair price.

And then at the end of the street, a hospital. In its courtyard, lined with
pink-painted concrete balustrades, a rare tree offering some shade, casting
shadows over the sandbagged foxholes dug in front of the single-storey
building.

Inside, lines of women, clutching babies, waiting to be seen by the one
doctor who is left. He is angry, frustrated. No-one can help him, he says,
he helps himself. In his smart grey trousers with a neat crease, his
cardigan and clean shirt, he is working behind a table across the doorway to
the consulting room. He has told the soldiers he needs water and electricity
but everything else he has. This is a medical centre, he has to see more
than 100 people a day. He is the only GP here. He is exhausted, he says.

The CO says army doctors will be available, but the doctor tells him there
are Iraqi doctors but they are in Basra and can't get to the hospital. He is
calming down. He says his name is Dr Basl and that if there is an engineer
who can help then that might be good. The CO says things will get better and
Dr Basl wonders whether that is a promise. He apologises for having nothing
to offer his visitors to drink. He says he knows the British like their tea,
but he has none.

Outside, the CO gets on the radio, calling for engineers and for water to be
brought to the hospital. A child trots past, pulling an empty can on a piece
of string as a toy.

The CO walks on down the street, past more people clamouring for water . The
crowd is drifting away and the CO turns to survey the town and he says what
is on his mind: "Water is everything now. It is win or lose in this town. We
are going to win or lose this by getting them water."




_______________________________________________
Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss
To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk
All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk