Iraqis Flock to ‘the Mother of All Flea Markets’
fairplay
Mohammed Alkhereiji, Arab News War Correspondent
BAGHDAD, 16 April 2003 — On Yasser Arafat Street, one of Baghdad’s
busiest shopping areas, the shops are open and shopkeepers are scrubbing
the street and sidewalks outside them. Fruit and vegetable markets are
bustling, and families are out promenading with smiles on their faces.
The local barbers, too, are open for business and Arab News walked in on
Mohammed Al-Sa’ali, who was enjoying his first haircut since the war
started.
“I’m getting my haircut to celebrate Saddam’s demise and the beginning
of a new era,” he declared.
Ironically, a picture of the former Iraqi dictator was still hanging on
the wall a few meters away from him.
In the Abu Ghorab district on the outskirts of Baghdad, the mother of
all flea markets has been set up, and those who looted the capital’s
government and other buildings are selling their booty — cigarettes,
furniture, sportswear lingerie — at knockdown prices. Nike sneakers were
being sold for $2.
There is also a huge black market in gasoline. Saddam’s army had massive
gasoline reserves and in some areas of Baghdad locals are filling their
containers with it and selling it at massively inflated prices.
In the Rumadi area 120 miles west of Baghdad, a group of the town’s
imams, led by Imam Ali Zeleami, came to a cease-fire agreement with
coalition troops, whereby the troops will occupy only the outskirts of
the mostly calm area.
Security at the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad has been beefed up in
reaction to an ambush staged two days ago by four Iraqi sympathizers of
Saddam Hussein.
At 6 a.m. yesterday, a fleet of helicopters circled above in what the US
military described as “a routine security operation”. Cars are no longer
allowed to park near the hotel, which is home to most of the foreign
journalists in the capital, and US Marines are redirecting the ocean of
human traffic away from it.
The capital still lacked power, water and medical care yesterday, and
troops were turning their attention to that as well as the question of
law and order.
A group calling itself the Gathering for Democracy issued printed
statements urging fellow Iraqis to stop looting public facilities.
Groups of Marines were on foot patrol in some neighborhoods, some with
children tagging along, and as many as 1,000 Iraqi policemen showed up
for joint Iraqi-US patrols.
Dressed in full uniform, the Iraqi police are patrolling the city in 10
different fleets in groups of four. Sixteen of them are helping the US
military with security at Al-Andalus Square. “Most are concerned about
the looting and the security of the neighborhoods,” officer Yusuf
Al-Qubasi told Arab News.
“We are understaffed, but it is our duty to try and bring order back to
Baghdad.”
When asked if he and his fellow officers would fight Saddam’s Fedayeen
alongside the US military, he said that he had not yet been asked to do
so, but depending on the circumstances “I might have to”.