WORLD BRIDGE BLOG

Sunday, March 8th

I have just arrived in Iraq with two colleagues to study ways in which the U.S., The United Nations and the government of Iraq can work better together to help millions of displaced Iraqis return home. Everybody--Iraqis, U.S. and international officials--agrees that security in Iraq has improved dramatically in the last few months, although there are still acts of violence and other security challenges.

Now the task is to improve other conditions, such as infrastructure, economic development and job creation, which are necessary to enable Iraqis to live better and support themselves. This is the challenge that the government of Iraq and its backers face now. Progress won't be easy or quick. Low oil prices have cut Iraq's budget. The government is not well organized. Corruption is a huge problem. What happens when U.S. troops pull out is far from clear. But there is a sense of hope that residents say did not exist last year, or even months ago. One sign of that hope is that displaced Iraqis are beginning to return home.

Tuesday, March 10th

Nearly everybody here says that security in Iraq has improved dramatically in the last few months, but this is still a dangerous place. On Sunday more than two dozen police cadets were killed by a suicide bomber. Early Monday morning a large bomb blast sent shockwaves through central Baghdad. According to U.S. journalists here, somebody had fired a 122mm Katushya rocket at the Parliament building. The rocket missed and caused little damage, and apparently no deaths. Today a suicide bomber killed 33 people attending a reconciliation conference in Abu Ghraib.

There are bombed out buildings throughout the city, and one Iraqi estimates that it will take at least 15 years to restore Baghdad to its pre-war condition. Yet, worse than the physical damage are the stories of personal and psychological damage. Yesterday, the Iraqi who escorted us into the  International Zone told us that he had been shot through the neck while standing outside his home--he showed us where the bullet entered and exited. His wife had been shot as well. He was targeted because he worked for the UN and was seen as a collaborator. Now he lives in the International Zone for security reasons and his wife and 14-year-old son are refugees in Jordan. He has no idea when it will be safe enough for them to come back to Baghdad.

Wednesday, March 11th

Everybody in Baghdad has a story--a story of death, destruction and displacement, a story of loss, a story of story of survival, a story of hope and reconciliation. Here are three. Because security is till tenuous here, I will not use any names:

* A young man who works for a civil society organization that helps displaced people return home has just decided to return to the house where his father was killed. He does not know why his father was targeted but offers three possible reasons--his father was a Shi'a living in a largely Sunni neighborhood, he had been a high-ranking officer in Saddam Hussein's army, or perhaps because he worked as a translator for the U.S. Army.

After his father was killed the coalition forces took his house for use as a security outpost, and left it in bad shape. He received rent for five months, but it didn't come close to the cost of rebuilding the house. Although people in nine of the 31 families in the Doura neighborhood were killed, he decided to return to his home after friends and neighbors reported that the area is safe. How can he be certain that the killers are gone? "The guys who killed must have been captured or killed or their brothers have been killed," a friend explains.

*A woman who works with widows and displaced women says, "There is a great need for psychological support for people who saw husbands or fathers or sons killed before their eyes." She also says that women need help in setting up businesses and in earning livelihoods.

*Iskandariyah, a town about 50 kilometers south of Baghdad, was part of the so-called Triangle of Death during the worst period of sectarian violence. Once divided 50-50 between Sunni and Shia, many families fled. Now they are returning. What ended the violence? Sheiks and other community leaders in the local Advisory Council. "Many sheiks lost sons and brothers," one of the leaders explained. "We realized that our children were being killed, Sunni and Shi'a together and decided it was time to stop.”