Incisive-View

Iraqis protest building of wall around Sunni neighborhood

By Alissa J. Rubin and Jon Elsen Published: April 23, 2007


BAGHDAD: Large crowds demonstrated in the Adhamiya neighborhood in Baghdad on Monday, protesting plans to build a wall around the mostly Sunni neighborhood, a day after Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said he was ordering a halt to construction of that wall.

Maliki made his comments from Egypt, where he was on a state visit. But American officials did not say whether the wall's construction would be halted.

Crowds gathered near the mosque of Abu Hanifa, overlooking the Tigris River, then marched in the streets of the Sunni Arab enclave, bordered by Shiite areas.

Adhamiya often comes under mortar attack and suffers incursions from the surrounding neighborhoods. It has also been a stronghold of militant Sunni Arab groups, and the wall would help the Iraqi security forces to control their movements.

"We denounce the building of the wall, which will increase the sectarian rift," said Um Muhammad, a teacher in Adhamiya. "We demand that occupation forces should remove it, and not to build any similar wall in other areas."

A leaflet distributed at the demonstration said the wall would "turn the city into a big prison." Banners said "No Shiites, No Sunnies, Islamic Unity."
Maliki said Sunday that construction of the wall reminded people of "other walls." His announcement that construction would be halted appeared intended to allay the mounting criticism from both Sunni Arab and Shiite parties about the project.

"I oppose the building of the wall, and its construction will stop," Maliki told reporters during a joint news conference with the secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa. "There are other methods to protect neighborhoods."

America's ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, defended the wall on Monday, saying it made "good security sense" to build barriers where there were clear fault-lines and "avenues of attack" between Sunni and Shiite areas, Reuters reported.

Neither he nor a U.S. military spokesman, Rear Admiral Mark Fox, would say whether construction of the Adhamiya wall would be stopped, according to Reuters. Fox said the erection of barriers around Baghdad's markets and neighborhoods was approved by Iraq's government.

Maliki did not specify in his remarks what other walls he referred to. However, the separation barrier in the West Bank being erected by Israel, which Israel says is for protection but greatly angers Palestinians, is a particularly delicate issue among Arabs.

"This wall makes us feel as if we were in Palestine," Akram al-Ani, of Adhamiya, said at the demonstration on Monday. "And this is the same wall that separates Palestinians from Israelis."
Eman Khudair 48, a widow who lives with her family near the wall, said she feared that government forces controlling access to the neighborhood might collaborate with militias that want to enter. And she feared that the government might close off the area and prevent supplies from entering.

Sameer al-Abeidi, the sheikh of the Abu Hanifa mosque, said he welcomed Maliki's call for putting a halt to construction of the wall. "We shake hands with the government in such stands and hope that the occupation forces would not abort these stands," he said.

On Sunday, the spokesman for the American military in Iraq sought to allay criticism of the project and explain its intent by saying that it was meant to be only a temporary barrier to improve security.

The military does not have a new strategy of building walls or creating "gated communities," the spokesman, Major General William Caldwell IV, said in a written statement. He described it as a tactic being used in only a handful of neighborhoods and not an effort to divide the city, much less the country.

However, American military officials said last week in a statement that the Adhamiya wall was "one of the centerpieces of a new strategy." They also said that the wall was aimed at separating Sunni Arabs in Adhamiya from Shiites to the east.

Source:International Herald Tribune

My view: Walls have caused much misery and hardship for the Palestinians and the US seems to want to inflict even more misery on the long-suffering people of Iraq. Time to wake up and smell the coffee, the myopic Americans just don't get the fact that they have illegally invaded a country and the only thing that will allow this country to get back on its feet is if they leave!! They have set this country back many decades, which as far as Israel is concerned is probably considered a job well done. Olmert's probably telling Bush to hurry up and sign all the oil reserves over to Dick and co and shut up shop and come home and keep pretending they went to Iraq to remove a dictator (who was previously their man, until he stopped doing what he was told!) Oh actually I forgot, the good ole US with all its technology actually invaded Iraq due to the WMDs, that they knew didn't exist. Probably dodgy Israeli intelligence fed to the UK that led to that fatal spin.