Things that go Boom

In all my ranting and raving regarding the tardiness of flights and food poisoning I never touched on the fact that last week was one of the deadliest weeks Baghdad has had in a while.

The day I left for Erbil close to 30 were killed in a bombing in central (east - Palestine Street) Baghdad, and later this week over 30 were killed in Abu Ghrab (yes where the prison is - it's technically in Anbar Governorate, but it is just on the outskirts of Baghdad).

Now there are attacks everyday. Rocket fire is constant, so are improvised explosive devices. They reckon 40-60 projectiles are thrown at the green zone each week. Most don't make it in, those that do often don't explode. Occasionally some one is unlucky (in December when I was there it was the UN Bangladeshi contract caterers - who are not provided the same protection as the actual UN staff), but on a whole very few are injured or killed. Every day there are explosions in the city. You can hear them from the IZ. Sometimes they kill or injure people, now a days a lot of them are caught by the police and the military and safely detonated away from people. I have experienced the army quickly cordoning off an areas and redirecting traffic after a car bomb was discovered near a ministry building. This is a testament to how far the Iraqi Army and police have come in their development. Flashback just a couple years ago, and all these attacks were more than likely going to be deadly.

However the recent events show that those who want to re-destailise the country are learning to get around new security developments. I worry because this may only get worse. The government and multi-national forces are in the process of disbanding the "Sons of Iraq" councils (Sahwa Councils) - the Sunni - come insurgent scheme to bring hostile actors into a legitimate security role (paying them off in the process - which combats the major cause of conflict in Iraq which is unemployment, poverty and boredom). The success of these councils is shown in the vast reduction of violence in places such as Anbar Governorate. But with these councils now being disbanded, and no new jobs to provide a similar income, a lot of angry young men will be left in a spot where they will turn to the militias (or organised criminal gangs) again.

Coming back to myself (me me me), this is why I'm particularly angry about the end of my youth program. I know its small fish (30 youth per governorate) but its initiatives that bring youth together that help reduce the likelihood of young people turning to violence! My program is not interested in finding means to support the youth groups externally, so I have to go at it alone. I hope that I can find some interested donors that are willing to support these actions, but we will see.

I'm not sure where my current organisation gets off on this... particularly since they adhere to the "do no harm" principle.