I just returned from a short assignment to Baghdad. I had never been there before and did not know what to expect. Actually, I did not see much of the city, apart on the way from the airport to the safe compound in the Green Zone where I was staying, and on my way back. And there were two travels to meetings outside the Green Zone, each in a small convoy of two armoured vehicles, the drivers and co-drivers armed with submachine guns.
Inside the Green Zone, there were only few cars and almost no people in the streets. Outside, in the small part of the city that I have seen, there was a bit of traffic and and some pedestrians moving around.
The green zone is a new model of a walled city.
It is encircled by concrete walls, with just a few heavily guarded gates. These gates are completely closed between midnight and five am in the morning. Established following the 2003 war, the wall primarily aims to protect government officials, foreign diplomats, and individuals working or residing within the fortified area. These individuals are considered high-value targets due to their roles in governance, diplomacy, and decision-making processes.
My colleagues and me were definitely high-value targets: a drive of 500 m in a soft skin car from our compound to famous Dojo’s, one of the few restaurants inside the Green Zone, as a weekend go-out, costed about 200 USD. In comparison, our Iraqi colleagues told me that they pay just around 3 dollars for a normal taxi ride of 8 km from their home to their office compound in the Green Zone.
Inside the walled city, security costs for high-value targets are at least 20 times higher than for ordinary Iraqi citizens.
And there is little green inside the green zone. Just more walls, and more heavily guarded gates and entrances to official buildings and compounds of embassies or UN organisations. Most of the few private residences are enclosed by walls and under video surveillance. Even inside the safe compounds, there are more walls, narrow pathways and little space to move.
Alas, almost nothing is left of the historic walls around the Old City that were originally built during the Abbasid Caliphate in the 8th century. And even less is left of the splendour and beauty of medieval Baghdad, the capital of knowledge and city of a Thousand and One Nights.
An update, just under a month later: outside the Green Zone, beyond the walls, there iss obviously a lot going on that I have not seen. The following article in the Washington Post describes a different dynamic, but no less disturbing.
