As violence in Iraq continues, the United States officially proclaims it will not intervene, writes Nermeen Al-Mufti Even by Iraq's standards, this week was tragic. On Sunday nearly 100 civilians were killed in Al-Karkh and Sadr City -- both working class neighbourhoods of Baghdad -- by car bombs. The Karkh explosion took place at about 8am, close to a school ironically named National Sovereignty. School teachers were seen soon afterwards trying to calm down screaming children in the school. Then it was all wailing and police sirens. On the same day, the body of the president of the Engineering College of Mustansariya University was found. He had been kidnapped a few days earlier. Forty bodies of unidentified men, apparently killed by gunshot, were also found on Tuesday. This raised the number of those who have been found dead to almost 100 in 24 hours. Other bodies were found in both Sunni and Shia areas. Aside from the two car bombs that went off in a crowded marketplace in Sadr City, police managed to defuse two booby-trapped cars that were meant to cause further mayhem. Shia leader Muqtada Al-Sadr called for self-restraint and said he would give orders to Al-Mahdi army not to respond to attacks. Iraqis live in shock and disbelief, as if the tragedy is unfolding elsewhere. The country has been witnessing a surge in sectarian violence since the bombing of the Samaraa Shrine a couple of weeks ago. Recent remarks by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld failed to cheer them up. Rumsfeld promised that US troops wouldn't intervene in the case of civil war in Iraq. The US ambassador in Iraq echoed the same sentiment. Janan Ali, a Mustansariya University professor, is a critic of US policy in Iraq. "Since the first days of the occupation, and having failed to find mass destruction weapons or establish a link between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda, the US administration has been telling us that it was keeping its troops in Iraq to prevent civil war. US forces have attacked several Iraqi cities on the pretext of protecting Iraqis. And now the US administration has just confessed it was lying all along. There is no more justification for Arab and international silence on the matter. The Iraqis have warned repeatedly that the continued occupation would lead to civil war." No progress is being made on the political front. Saad Al-Ani, a political science professor, has been following the constitutional stalemate with a sense of sadness. "The Iraqi constitution calls for parliament to convene by 12 March, or else the elections would be annulled. But people who claim the constitution will only go into effect once parliament meets have ignored this date. The Kurds, mind you, are keen to implement Article 58 of the constitution -- the article that defines Kirkuk's status. For them, the Iraqi constitution is already in force." The country's leaders don't see the bombs go off except on television, Al-Ani added. "They live in fortified palaces or in the Green Zone. They don't feel the pain." Saadeddin Arkej, chairman of the Turkoman Front and member of the elected parliament, is concerned over the political wrangling. "The Kurds have made it clear that they don't want Ibrahim Al-Jaafari because of his position on Kirkuk. Al-Jaafari, for his part, is refusing to discuss Kirkuk until the government takes office." The Turkomans, Iraq's third largest ethnic group, are afraid the Kurds will end up controlling Kirkuk. In a recent meeting of the Kurdistan parliament in Irbil, Turkoman parliamentarians enquired about the fate of Turkoman detainees in northern prisons. Adnan Al-Mufi, who is the Kurdistan parliamentary speaker, was rather blunt in his reply. Local authorities, he said, simply implement US orders. Ali Hashem, leader of the Turkoman Front in Salaheddin, describes what happened following the recent murder of a Kurdish National Guard officer in Yankeja, a Turkoman village 75 kilometres south of Kirkuk. In retaliation, a National Guard unit attacked the village, destroying a power station and several water tanks. In the course of two days of collective punishment, two inhabitants were killed, 10 wounded, and dozens of houses, shops and cars wrecked. "The punishment lasted till Sunday, ending only after we got in touch with US forces and the command of the National Guard in Kirkuk." The inhabitants of Kirkuk and other dominantly Turkoman towns were relieved to know that Al-Sadr followers said they would defend the Arab identity of Kirkuk at any cost, even if they had to "bring all the mujahideen of the Mahdi army to the city." The US ambassador to Iraq has criticised Iraqi politicians. In an interview with London-based Al-Hayat, he said that Iraqi politicians place "individual interests above national interests at a time when the country is on the verge of civil war and when foreign agendas are tearing it apart." The ambassador warned that unless Iraqis find a common ground and establish an efficient government "Iraq would head to a civil war." As more professionals die in the course of violence, the current government has allowed doctors to travel for work outside the country. The doctors will have to sign a pledge to come back within three years. The government told the press that the decision was taken with a view to protecting doctors. But who will treat the victims of violence? No one is telling us. The government is being philosophical about this and other matters. Recently, it has just advised academics to carry arms to protect themselves. The country's chaotic existence is best symbolised by phone messages and cheaply produced song albums. In most songs, lyrics call for national unity, poke fun at various sects, or demand vengeance. Who exactly is producing these songs? No one knows, but a rough guess is that the same people who foment civil war in Iraq are producing this new kind of art. The inhabitants of the Green Zone will be celebrating on 9 April. The cause of celebration: Iraq's new "National Day". For some people, this is a cause for joy. For many, this is just the day the nightmare started.
