|
The US military is building a wall between
Sunni and Shia Muslims in Baghdad
21.4.2007
|
|
|
|
April
21, 2007
Latest US solution to
Iraq's civil war: a three-mile wall
· Concrete barrier to encircle Sunni district
· Construction under cover of night
The US military is building a three-mile concrete
wall in the centre of Baghdad along the most
murderous faultline between Sunni and Shia
Muslims.The wall, which recognises the reality of
the hardening sectarian divide in Baghdad, is a
central part of George Bush's final push to pacify
the capital. Work began on April 10 under cover of
darkness and is due for completion by the end of the
month.
The highly symbolic wall has evoked comparisons to
the barriers dividing Protestants and Catholics in
Belfast and Israelis and Palestinians along the
length of the West Bank.
Captain Scott McLearn, who is based at Camp Victory,
the US base on the outskirts of Baghdad, said Shias
"are coming in and hitting Sunnis, and Sunnis are
retaliating across the street".
Although Baghdad is full of barriers and
checkpoints, particularly round the Green Zone where
the US and British are based along with the Iraq
government, this is the first time a wall has been
built along sectarian lines.
Its construction comes as the security situation
appears to be deteriorating despite the recent US
troop "surge". This week a bombing at the Sadriya
market in the city killed 140 people - the deadliest
in the capital since the 2003 invasion.
Walls are controversial. The Israeli government
insists its wall is effective in reducing suicide
bombers but Palestinians, many of whose lives it has
seriously disrupted, as well as some Israelis argue
that it consolidates divisions.
The Baghdad wall, which will be 12ft (3,5 metres)
high, is being built by US paratroopers who left
Camp Taji, about 20 miles north of the city, on the
first night in a dozen trucks carrying stacks of
huge concrete barriers, each weighing 14,000 pounds
(6,300kg). Cranes, protected by tanks, winched them
into place. Building has continued every night
since.
News of the wall's construction came as the
Democratic US Senate leader, Harry Reid, provoked a
new row with the White House when he claimed the
defence secretary, Robert Gates, and the secretary
of state, Condoleezza Rice, know that "this war is
lost". Mr Gates, on a visit to Baghdad yesterday,
said: "On the war is lost, I respectfully disagree."
The White House repeated that the new strategy,
which involves sending more US troops to Baghdad, is
showing tentative signs of working.
Since the US-led invasion, "ethnic cleansing" has
resulted in population shifts that have left Baghdad
increasingly divided on sectarian grounds, separated
by the Tigris which runs through the centre of the
city. Sunnis are consolidating on the west side and
Shias on the east. The wall is being built round the
biggest remaining Sunni enclave on the east bank, at
Adhamiya. Referred to by US troops as the Great Wall
of Adhamiya, it is surrounded on three sides by Shia
neighbourhoods and has been the scene of some of the
city's worst violence.
There was confusion about the wall at US HQ.
Major-General William Caldwell, the usual US
spokesman in Baghdad, said on Wednesday he was
unaware of efforts to build a wall. "Our goal is to
unify Baghdad, not subdivide it into separate
[enclaves]," he said. But a US military press
release from Camp Victory provided extensive details
about the construction. It said: "The area the wall
will protect is the largest predominately Sunni
neighbourhood in east Baghdad. The wall is one of
the centrepieces of a new strategy by coalition and
Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian
violence."
The strategy involves creating a series of gated
communities, in which US and Iraqi troops control
entry and exits. The aim is to try to prevent
movement by insurgents, in particular suicide
bombers.
Residents of Adhamiya had mixed feelings. Ahmed
Abdul-Sattar, a government worker, said: "I don't
think this wall will solve the city's serious
security problems. It will only increase the
separation between our people, which has been made
so much worse by the war."
guardian co.uk
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 