'The war is over, but there is no peace ... and the
killings go on'
The Iraqi journalist Abbas Ahmed Ibrahim tells of the
horror and hardship in a first-hand account from the
devastated city of Fallujah
20 November 2004

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=584773

This is a strange time in Fallujah. They say the war
is over, but there is no peace. Every day there is
shooting, and there are still killings going on. There
is very little left of the town now, everywhere there
are buildings which have been destroyed.

There is also a terrible smell. We know what it is -
it is the smell of dead bodies. Many have now been
cleared away, but the smell does not go away, it will
stay with us for a long time. The Americans say they
are just finishing off the insurgents, but then they
have been saying that for a few days now, so people
here ask "who have they got left to finish off?" We
hear of things like American soldiers killing wounded
prisoners in a mosque, but that news is recycled to us
from people outside. It is not possible to go out and
find out what is going on.

I am not staying in Fallujah out of choice. But I am
afraid to try to leave. I am 36 years old, The
American troops have been arresting any males between
the ages of 15 and 45 who have attempted to leave.
They say civilians were told to get out of Fall- ujah,
so any man who stayed behind must be in the mujahedin.

There are Iraqi men, with their faces hidden by
scarves, with the American troops. These are the
informers. If they point you out as an insurgent then
there is no chance of proving that you are innocent.
There are people who are settling personal or tribal
grudges like this. You do not know who will denounce
you.

The reason I stayed behind is the same as many of the
other remaining men here, to protect my house. My wife
and parents begged me to go with them when I sent them
away to Amiriyah, but I would not listen. I now
realise what a mistake that was. I am staying with
relations, and my house has probably been destroyed.
The Americans were shooting everywhere, from the air
and the ground, when they came into the town. The
house I am staying in was hit by machine-gun fire.
Those days and nights were very frightening. Their
shells and bombs would make everything shake, and it
seemed to go on day and night. That has stopped now.
But there is also a lot of damage being caused when
they carry out searches of houses. There are very few
of us - civilians - left inside Fallujah now, I do not
know how many because people do not go out. We are
staying in little groups, not really going out much
beyond our streets, because it is still very
dangerous. I do not know if my cousin's family are all
right, although, in a normal time, their home would
only be 10 minutes' drive away. Most of the families
here have someone who has been injured, arrested, and,
sometimes, killed.

Things are very bad here, but then they have been bad
for such a long time now that one forgets what normal
life was like. There is no power or water, and very
little food left, and there is simply no medicine
left. People I know are very ill, mainly from bad
water, but they are not getting treatment.

We were told that the Red Crescent and other aid
organisations wanted to send food and medicine into
the town, but it was stopped on the orders of Allawi
(Iyad Allawi, Iraq's interim Prime Minister). This has
made people even more angry. It makes them think he is
taking the side of the Americans against his own
people.

The Americans say that they have set up centres for
distributing food and medicine. They also say that
Fallujah hospital has now been open again for more
than a week.

This is true in both cases. But the problem is that
getting to them is very risky. You can get arrested by
the Americans or you might get killed. Two women were
shot trying to get food for their families. The
Americans say the mujahedin shot them. Most people
think it was the Americans themselves who did this.
But I do not think that is the case. It probably was
the mujahedin. But why is this happening if the
Americans are in control of Fallujah?

I do not know what is going to happen to us over the
next few days. I have news that my family is all
right, so a big worry has been lifted. Maybe things
will be safer when other civilians start coming back
into Fallujah.




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