Friday, October 4, 2002
Shrine to victims of tragic error
Wreaths, flags, prayers mark place where hundreds of civilians died
By LARRY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER FOREIGN DESK EDITOR
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Al-Amiriya is an example of the worst that can happen, despite smart people and smart bombs.
In February 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, a U.S. bomb punched a hole through the roof of the Al-Amiriya bomb shelter; seconds later a missile plowed through the opening.
| Paul Kitagaki Jr. / P-I | ||
| An Iraqi man holds a peace offering at the Al-Amiriya bomb shelter in Baghdad, where by Iraqi count 408 civilians died after a U.S. bomb and missile destroyed it in 1991. | ||
By Iraqi count, the blasts killed 408 civilians, mostly women and children. Many were killed by the concussion, the rest by a fire so intense it left flash-burned outlines of women and infants on the walls that are still visible today.
The United States has said it believed it was targeting a military command center.
Today, although much of the visible damage in Baghdad from the Gulf War has been repaired, the shelter remains largely as it was after the bombing. It is in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood, although, with potholes and broken windows here and there, it is a neighborhood that is showing signs of wear.
The shelter has become a pilgrimage site for political and religious delegations that come to Baghdad. The cool, gray and charcoal-colored corridors are lined with memorial wreaths and the flags of many nations, along with signed prayers from foreign leaders.
There also are hundreds of photos and drawings of the women and children who died, along with favorite toys, books and other personal belongings left by survivors.
| Paul Kitagaki Jr. / P-I | ||
| Photographs and drawings of those who were killed, many of them women and children, line the walls of the Al-Amiriya bomb shelter. | ||
Fatima, a middle-aged woman who lost her husband and children in the bombing, greets all visitors at the entrance. The night of the attack, she had gone to a friend's house. She said, "I should get back to the shelter." But her friend said, "You go there every night, so, why don't you just stay here tonight."
She did, and now she is alone.
After the bodies were removed from the shelter, Fatima moved onto the grounds and has never left. She lives there, giving tours to anyone who comes along, and asks for donations to maintain the site as a shrine.
The deaths at the shelter were just part of the toll from the Gulf War. Estimates vary dramatically on both the number of non-combatants killed -- anywhere from fewer than 1,000 to 25,000 -- and soldiers killed -- from a little more than 1,000 to tens of thousands.
There were 214 U.S. and allied casualties during the war.
If the United States launches an attack, this time the death toll could be higher, from the immediate fighting and from the renewed destruction of the country's infrastructure, according to U.N. officials and in the opinion of people on the streets.
"We don't like the war . . . it is horrible, but, believe me, everyone in Iraq will fight," said Al' Saeed, a technical engineer at an office on Karata Street, in a busy commercial district of the city. "We have lived from 1990 until now with the embargo, also another kind of war, a kind of fighting . . . with food and medicine. It is very bad."
Many Iraqis who could afford to have left the country -- at least 1 million of Iraq's 23 million people in the past 12 years. They are the ones with the most education, the cream of the middle class.
Those who remain could face a food crisis if war breaks out, some believe.
Although the past two years have brought good rainfall, which means a good harvest this year of wheat and dates, many Iraqis would starve without the United Nations food program. The average Iraqi has about six weeks of food at home, and there is perhaps another six weeks in U.N. storehouses.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
P-I foreign desk editor Larry Johnson and photographer Paul Kitagaki Jr. have been dispatched to Iraq to report on the mood and conditions as the country is under threat of attack from the United States. They are among only a handful of Western journalists reporting from Iraq.
Reach P-I foreign desk editor Larry Johnson at 206-448-8035 or [email protected]