People flee their homes after death threats while armed gangs roam the streets; there seems no way to escape the sectarian violence engulfing Iraq, writes Nermeen Al-Mufti from Baghdad It is reassuring when students go to schools and colleges. It is reassuring when employees show up at their offices every morning. For a while, Baghdad had enjoyed this bare sense of normalcy. Now even this has gone away. Two mass abductions in less than a week made students, as well as government officials, think twice before stepping out of their homes. The first abduction was of employees from the Missions Department of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research; the second of workers of the General Batteries Company. And it could have been worse. Gunmen tried to break into the ministries of health and justice and into the offices of the General Pensions Department. They failed, but they'll try again. Explosions and mortar fire are also taking their toll on the beleaguered population of Baghdad. A shell exploded in downtown Baghdad early in the week, wounding a teacher and several students. Three booby- trapped cars went off in Al-Sadriya market. Shells fell on Al-Shourga market while snipers have been firing at shoppers and merchants in Tahrir Square in downtown Baghdad. If this is part of a grand plan to turn Baghdad into a ghost town, it's certainly succeeding. On Saturday and Sunday 95 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad alone. Ten other bodies were found in Mosul and Al-Basra. All in all, suicide attacks and roadside bombs killed 153 civilians in Baghdad and Kirkuk. Those US and Iraqi troops tasked with protecting ordinary people have killed civilians, including women and children, in search operations in Al-Ramadi and Diyali. Clashes between the police and the Mahdi Army in Al-Samawa were as bloody as ever. The death toll in October was 3,790, according to UN sources. And now the Interior Ministry says that the death toll in November was 44 per cent higher. Nouri Al-Maliki returned from Amman with a ringing endorsement from the US president. But critics of his government have been more outspoken than ever. Falah Shneishel is leader of the Sadr Block, an influential Shiite group that has suspended its participation in the parliament in protest to Al-Maliki's visit to Amman. "What does it mean for Bush to give a vote of confidence to a government that came to office through the confidence of voters?" he said. The Sadr Block wants Al-Maliki takes a clear stand on the US forces and on the situation in Iraq. Iraqi Vice President Tareq Al-Hashimi, who will meet with Bush in Washington next month, is a harsh critic of the prime minister. He believes that what the country needs is "a new government coalition that guarantees that decisions are made by all, not one person... Otherwise, the country will drown in civil war." Even Deputy Prime Minister Salam Al-Zobaei admits that Al-Maliki's government has failed to stop the spread of sectarian policies. Dr Saleh Al-Motallek, leader of the National Dialogue Block (holding 11 parliamentary seats) is incensed by Bush's remark that Al-Maliki was the "right man" for Iraq. The US administration should be more knowledgeable, he said. "The Americans should know that the political process has totally failed because of the kind of people who are in charge." He urged the formation of a national salvation government from a broad swathe of independent figures and technocrats. Sunni and Shiite clerics seem to be unanimous in calling for an end to sectarian violence. In his Friday sermon, Sheikh Abdel-Mahdi Al-Karbalaai, a top aide of Sheikh Al-Sistani, said that the bloodshed hurts everyone, Shiites just as Sunnis. Sheikh Sadreddin Al-Qabanji, who is close to the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), told worshippers that "Iran wants to meet America, but is too shy. America wants to meet Iran, but is too shy. And we say that the meeting should take place at the end." The abductions are spreading terror amongst the civilian population. Often, the gangs wear police uniforms, a tactic that often leads to lethal consequences. Under the current emergency laws, those who refuse to stop at a checkpoint risk getting shot at. Because civilians have no way of telling whether the men in uniform are legitimate security personnel or not, their ability to protect themselves is severely compromised. While the abductions continue, gunmen have been dividing the city along sectarian lines, often using anonymous notes to force civilians from the wrong sect to leave their homes. Ibtisam Farid, a famous Iraqi actress and a Shiite, used to live in Al-Kafaat in western Baghdad. She found a note at her door containing one bullet and a warning that she had to leave the house within two hours. She took her family and fled away. But before she left, she entrusted her key to a Sunni neighbour. She had lived in that house for 25 years and says that for all those years no one ever asked if her family was Sunni or Shiite. From across the sectarian divide, a similar story is told by Amr Al-Saadi, a medical doctor and a Sunni. He had to leave his house in Al-Shaab area, after receiving a message containing one bullet and a threat. He too left his door key with a Shiite neighbour. Dr Mahasen Al-Khafaji, a Shiite married to a Sunni, wonders what would happen if Baghdad is divided into two sides. "The two communities have been intermarrying for centuries, not decades," she said. Omm Leith, a teacher, said that one didn't know who to trust anymore. "Neighbour fears neighbour, worker is afraid of colleague. What's going on?" The answer to this question is not clear, not even to top security officials. A senior Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Weekly that he and his colleagues hadn't left the ministry's building for weeks. "We work night and day." But their efforts haven't been successful so far. And many in this country believe that things may have reached the point of no return. Over the past few weeks, the US president, the Jordanian king, the Turkish prime minister, and the Arab League chief have all called for a united Iraq. But Iraq is slipping away. It is slipping toward partition, with a trail of blood behind it.
