BAGHDAD, October 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Though sovereignty was “technically” returned to Iraq three months ago, 10 square kilometers remained nevertheless pure American territory.
The so-called Green Zone, along the banks of the Tigris River and the location of Saddam Hussein-era palaces, is now home to the world’s largest US embassy, military command centers and US firms, which occupied the area’s finest buildings, the Associated Press reported Sunday, October 10.
The American planners who drew the Green Zone perimeter had to include hundreds of homes for security reasons.
“It's a world within a world,” a Western diplomat living in the Green Zone told the American news agency. “I imagine there are some people here who never meet Iraqis.”
While car bombings, kidnappings and gunfights rage across the capital, life behind the blast walls resembles suburban America, the AP said.
Women in shorts, tree-lined avenues, off-duty soldiers lounge beside a swimming pool, cafes, two Chinese restaurants are unmistakable US characteristics of the place.
More and more, everything from pornographic movies to mobile phone accessories is on sale at the local bazaar.
Wrongly Accused
Iraqis whose homes wound up within the Green Zone are wrongly accused by their fellow ones of being collaborators.
The one and only thing they hope now is to kick out the Americans and dismantle their colony.
“Some people accuse us of being collaborators with the Americans,” Umm Omar told the AP.
Anti-US sentiments are actually running high among Iraqis inside the Green Zone.
“There aren't any kind of friendships between Iraqis living in the Green Zone and the Americans,” said an Iraqi housewife. “Our only contact with the Americans is at the checkpoint when we enter and leave.”
Having to undergo five security tests, it takes Iraqis 10 minutes to leave the Green Zone but it can take up to three hours to get back in.
The Green Zone suffers an average of three mortar attacks a day. A mortar exploded Saturday, October 9, sending up a large cloud of smoke over the heart of the American quarter.
Despite the handover of power to Iraqis, observers saw it as largely symbolic and insignificant.
Former US administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer Bremer has issued dozens of decrees that significantly restricted the powers of the interim government of Iyad Allawi.