05/19/2003

A large family consisting of thirteen members, husband, wife, the husband’s three brothers and eight children have been living in one building for 20 days. During Saddam Hussein’s rule they were afraid; many family members in their village were taken away and some were killed. They were never allowed to live in the city during the Saddam regime and now they want to stay in the city. “We never want to go back. We will not go back to the village now that we are allowed to come to the city. We will never leave.”The wife used to work in a central government market for Ba’ath party members only. She left the job on maternity leave before the war and has not been paid since. The three brothers in the family used to be drivers. They had cars in the rural area for transport. Currently the cars are still in the village and when they believe it is safe, they will bring the cars to Basra. “We are waiting for order in the city. We do not want our cars to be stolen,” one of the brothers told RI. They have become tile traders to make money. They looted a tile factory store and are now selling the Italian tile on the market. “We have a lot of oil. We never got the oil benefits under Saddam, now we need the oil benefits. We want to be like Kuwait. We want the oil money to rebuild Iraq,” they said.“We just want freedom, we do not want divisions, and we do not want the Iraqis to create organizations that will divide the people, “ one man told RI. They asked RI if the Americans will bring an American leader or if the people will be able to vote for the new leader. They also wondered if the United States would bring an Iraqi leader. If so they said, they would protest. “We want to choose and we want to vote.”