Bulletproof vests, concrete blocks and armed guards: life for
foreigners in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=565777
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
26 September 2004
"For Rent" signs in English seeking foreign tenants which were a
common sight last year in the plusher Baghdad neighbourhoods are no
more. "Even being seen talking to a foreigner is dangerous for me,"
said an Iraqi businessman. The only advertising addressed to
foreigners in Baghdad these days is in the form of discreet notices
pinned to the wall in hotels, offering bulletproof vests for sale.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein last year, foreigners poured into
Baghdad. The hotels filled up with mercenaries working for security
companies, businessmen looking for contracts to reconstruct Iraq, aid
workers, freelance journalists and people whose purpose in Iraq, if
they had any at all, remained mysterious.
Patrick Cockburn
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=18510aff.0404100308.5c3e0f98%40posting.google.com
.
|
