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| Transformer: Workers installed a transformer in Saidiyah last week. For more than a year, part of the area has not been connected
to Baghdad's power grid. Howard Lafranchi |
Iraq's new gated communities: safer, mixed, walled-in
Residents are moving back to Saidiyah, a neighborhood once racked by sectarian violence that is now guarded by a 12-foot-high wall.
from the May 6, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
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Reporter Howard LaFranchi discusses the practice of wall-building to quell violence in Iraq.
Still, Saidiyah bears the scars of many months of sectarian violence. A mostly upper-middle-class neighborhood of distinct Shiite and Sunni blocks, Saidiyah witnessed acts of terror that hit all communities, but targeted Shiites most.
Feras Ibrahim is a Sunni who moved to Saidiyah 18 months ago from another Baghdad neighborhood where conditions were worse for him. Two months ago he bought a wholesale grocery business on al-Marifah Street that was abandoned by a Shiite owner who was threatened with death if he didn't leave. "They left a bomb outside the door one night, they strafed the façade with gunfire. The bullet holes are still there as a reminder," says Mr. Ibrahim.
Some critics of the American military's construction of walled communities say it has reinforced Iraq's sectarian divides and turned Baghdad's many mixed neighborhoods increasingly into distinct enclaves.
But officials at the Saidiyah Support Council say both Shiite and Sunni are returning to the neighborhood. And they insist they are careful in their deliberations on property disputes to favor the law and no particular sect.
"We are a council of 24 – 12 Sunnis and 12 Shiites – we know very well how important it is we show we are working together," says Amari.
A Shiite, Amari moved from Saidiyah to the Shiite city of Karbala last year after his two brothers were killed. His deputy on the council, Haj Alawi al-Obeidi, a Sunni sheikh, also moved to the mainly Sunni city of Fallujah last year during the worst of the violence. But both men are back, determined to rebuild Saidiyah as a home for all communities.
"We said from our first meeting that we cannot place blame with one sect or the other, it is like the old question of whether the chicken or the egg came first," says Amari.
The neighborhood "continues to grow each day," said Lt. Ryan Olsen, assistance coordinator to the Iraqi Resettlement Plan for the US Baghdad Command, in an e-mail response to questions. "[It] has been quite peaceful over the past few months."
Still, many residents say Saidiyah has not completely healed from the sectarian trauma and isn't trouble free.
'There are still terrorists here'
In the past month, two members of families that moved back were killed. The local Sahwa, or "Sons of Iraq," patrol was attacked and four members were injured, and the Support Council's building was fired on at night. Since the Iraqi Army battalion assigned here arrived in October, 12 of its soldiers have been killed. And acting on tips from residents, US and Iraqi soldiers recently discovered a cache of weapons and explosive vests.
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