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“Bush promised to liberate Iraq and he has not done anything for us. At least Saddam gave us our salaries," Iraqis
仕事・援助を求めるイラク人がパレスチナホテルで米兵に詰め寄る。「ブッシュはイラクの解放を約束した、しかし何も与えてくれなかった。少なくともサダムは我々に給料を払ってくれた。」
Iraqis Invade Media Hotel Demanding Work, Aid
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-05/03/article09.shtml
BAGHDAD, May 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - "There is no money, no work
and no electricity. What are you doing here?" an exasperated Iraqi shouts in the
face of a U.S. soldier guarding Baghdad's Palestine Hotel.
Ready to work as interpreters, drivers or technicians, some 200 Iraqis Saturday,
May 3, invaded the lobby of the city center hotel housing foreign journalists
under U.S. protection to demand jobs and aid from the United States, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"People want a lot of things, money, work, petrol for their cars and they also
want someone to guide them, to tell them what to do," Ghanem Yussef told AFP.
"People here are very poor, they have nothing and what are the Americans doing?"
demanded the 40-year-old.
Each day, dozens of Iraqis line up at the Palestine Hotel looking for U.S.
officials to hand in job applications and vent their frustrations.
"This is chaos. They promised us work and money. Where is the government? Where
are the leaders?" cried a man in the middle of the crowd, who was promptly
ejected from the hotel by staff and U.S. soldiers.
Some of the demonstrators then sat on the ground outside the hotel entrance to
continue their protest.
"This isn't the place to address your concerns," a U.S. soldier told the Iraqis.
"Where then?" asked a job seeker. "I don't know," admitted the soldier.
In a city where rumors take the place of real information and where official
announcements are repeatedly contradicted, the protestors here wanted answers.
"We were told that work would start again. That we would be paid 20 dollars. Why
these lies? Why such chaos?" Hamid Abbas, a former civil servant at the oil
ministry, wanted to know.
Another waved a job application that he bought for 250 dinars (about 10 cents)
in the street in the front of the hotel.
"Iraqis are selling these forms but then you don't know where to turn them in.
And sometimes you find ones in the gutter that have been filled out," he said in
disgust.
In the almost all-male crowd, an old woman flashed her social security card. "I
haven't seen anything for two months. Why? Why?" she asked reporters.
Washington stands charged by many Iraqis with failing to take adequate measures
to rebuild the country and restore order and basic public services since Baghdad
fell to U.S. forces on April 9.
The interim U.S.-led administration has called on civil servants to return to
work, offering modest salaries paid in dollars.
But aid groups have added their voices to a chorus of criticism particularly
over the desperate state of Iraqi hospitals.
Beneath the anger at the Palestine Hotel, despair appeared to be eating away at
hope for the future.
"I don't know what to do anymore," confessed Ibrahim, an English teacher who
said he has been waiting "in vain" for more than two weeks for a response to his
application to work as a translator.
"The future is bleak. If they don't form a government soon, the situation will
deteriorate quickly," he said with an eye on the crowd.
"I don't understand. The Americans invaded Iraq in two weeks but since then
nothing has happened. You don't know who to turn to. The situation will lead us
straight to war, be it among Iraqis or with the Americans," warned Yussef Ghanem,
a former English student.
Next to him, Abdul, who introduced himself as an ex-member of the opposition to
deposed strongman Saddam Hussein, tried to control his anger as he spoke.
"Bush promised to liberate Iraq and he has not done anything for us. At least
Saddam gave us our salaries," he said.
Iraq Ripe For Humanitarian Disaster
In a separate related development, the UN chief of mission in Baghdad warned
Saturday, May 3, that Iraq was still ripe for a humanitarian disaster even
though the shooting has all but stopped, saying too many people were going
without food, water and power.
"We have not yet got over the hump. The conditions for the development of a
humanitarian disaster still exist," Ramiro Lopes da Silva said, flanked by other
UN officials who were ordered by Washington to leave Iraq, two days before the
invasion began March 20.
"It's (already) a humanitarian disaster in the sense basic services have
collapsed or are at the risk of collapsing if we don't put them back into shape
rather quickly," he said.
Lopes da Silva, making his first briefing to reporters since returning to
Baghdad Thursday, said nearly two-thirds of Iraqis were fully dependent on food
aid and that malnutrition was rampant.
Many are drinking unsuitable water which is causing infections, especially in
the south, and still have no electricity. Hospitals which were looted in the
aftermath of the occupation are overwhelmed and lack medicines and equipment.
Late Monday, April 28, U.S. President George W. Bush insisted "Iraq can be an
example of peace and prosperity and freedom to the entire Middle East".
Mounting anger among Iraqis, where will that lead?!
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