What do Shiite pilgrims want? A new Iraq government.

Even the rumor of a bombing in 2005 on a bridge near the shrine led to a panicked stampede during which an estimated 1,000 people died.

“We have the best feeling when we see those visitors – they challenge everything, even death,” says Hussein Sadis, a student volunteer at the rest tent who said he couldn’t count the number of pilgrims who had passed by. He was giving his time, he said, “so on judgment day” he could “tell God the good things that I did.”

The sectarian warfare and ethnic cleansing that raged in Iraq between 2005 and 2007 has now significantly abated. At its peak, it left a monthly death toll of more than 3,000.

“We are challenging terrorism, to make a new Iraq,” says pilgrim Ahmad Ismail, a student who had walked six days from Nasiriyah. “We hope that the government gets formed as soon as possible.”

“There is an effect on our security situation” from the political squabbling, says Jassim, the retiree who was bringing two sons and four cousins, despite the dangers. “It’s a very big problem because forming the government means settling down the situation and more security.”

Spotty electricity

Iraqi complaints in recent weeks have centered on lack of electricity, an issue that has dogged the US military and American and Iraqi civilian officials since 2003. Though output is higher than in the past, consumption has also soared with the temperatures this summer.

Protests in several cities over lack of power turned lethal last month, with two people killed by police in Basra. The incidents led to the resignation of Minister of Electricity Karim Waheed.

Jassim says his family gets one hour of electricity out of every five; during the previous regime, he says, his power was “almost continuous.”

To beat the heat on their walk toward Kadhimiya shrine with so many other pilgrims, they walked daily from 3 am to 11 am, and then from 4 pm to 10 pm.

“Don’t talk politics – I hate it,” says Manshad Sekhi Ouda, an accountant on his fourth day of walking. He was surrounded by other pilgrims, eating rice and stew and swatting multitudes of flies in the shade of the rest tent. “We are new to democracy and the idea of elections. Most Iraqis do not have a good experience with these new things.

“I voted in these elections, happily, and still we have these [high] expectations,” adds Mr. Ouda, sweat beading up on his forehead.

Iraqi politicians may take months more to form a government – fellow citizens should practice the patience of Imam Moussa, Ouda says – but the result will never be like that of Saddam Hussein.

“We have worked so hard not to go back to those days of the One Great Leader,” adds Ouda. “The effects of Saddam’s reign are very big, and we need even more time to overcome them.”

Related stories:

• A bigger threat to Iraq than Al Qaeda? Power cuts.
• As US troops leave, Iraq inches toward a new government
• Iraq news coverage

Previous

1 | 2