Baghdad, June 16 -- Dr. Faiq Amin, the manager of the Medico Legal Institute
(ie, the Baghdad morgue), told me a couple of days ago that their maximum
holding capacity is 90 bodies.
Since Janurary an average of over 600 bodies each month have been brought
there. Of these, at least half have died of gunshots or explosions. He also
pointed out that these numbers do not include the heavy fighting areas of
Fallujah and Najaf.
In addition, Dr. Amin said, "We deal only with suspicious deaths, not deaths
from natural causes."
The crime rate in Baghdad is out of control. According to Dr. Amin, this
current rate of bodies brought to the Baghdad Morgue is 3-4 times greater
than it ever was during the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Dr. Amin said that despite the number of bodies being delivered to his
morgue on a daily basis, "I am sure that not all of the bodies that should
come here do." He paused before diplomatically explaining, "Because our
legal system has some problems right now."
Before the invasion, there was a coordinated system between Baghdad and the
other governorates which allowed his morgue to track deaths throughout the
country, but this too has been smashed along with the rest of the
infrastructure of his country.
Outside of the morgue today, a man is mourning the loss of his 5 year-old
daughter Najala. Mr. Jassim and his family were driving, he tells me, when
an American Humvee abruptly pulled in front of their car, causing him to
lose control. His car flipped over, and Najala was crushed.
He was frustrated with the fact that he was being forced to wait yet another
day to pick up her body.
"Why can't we take her? They insist on an autopsy, yet she was crushed to
her death because we tried to avoid the Americans and our car flipped. So I
must wait to bury my daughter."
Abu Talat and I give him our condolences, and begin to walk away when Mr.
Jassim says, "Be careful, don't die in Iraq!"
Earlier we had visited the Baghdad headquarters of the Iraqi Police for
interviews and to obtain handwritten permission to visit a police station
from Brigadier General Amer Ali, who is also the Assistant Commander of the
Iraqi Police in the capital.
He isn't happy with the situation in his country. "Now everything is
smashed," he told me. "We are in a crashed country."
Major Said, the Information Officer for the Baghdad police, was overtly
negative about the occupiers of his country. He said: "The Americans invaded
our country. They are the invaders, so of course Iraqis don't like to work
with them."
He addressed the ongoing problem of US soldiers occupying their police
stations.
"While the Americans are in our stations, nobody comes to us for help
because they are afraid of them," he said. "This is interfering with our men
doing their job, as well as Iraqis getting assistance."
He was frustrated, and the longer we talked the more it came out, and at one
point he was almost ranting.
"We didn't want this 'democracy' to come. This is not democracy here. Even
if I say this as a civilian and not as a police officer, I can say it would
be better if the Americans let us do our work and stayed out of our
stations. The Americans are making IPs into targets."
While walking out of his office, since we'd told Major Said we were heading
towards Adhamiya for some lunch, he said, "Adhamiya is the next Fallujah."
Over in Adhamiya we were dining on tasty kebabs on a sidewalk roughly 200
meters from the Adhamiya Palace, which is the US encampment in the heavily
pro-resistance area of Baghdad. At 2pm three huge explosions sounded from
inside the US base. Mortars, promptly followed by a huge black billowing
plume of smoke from the target.
Everyone in the café was watching the smoke and spontaneous celebrations
erupted as men clapped, cheered and yelled. "Here they go! The Americans
have been killed!"
We continued eating, not missing a beat in our conversation. Abu Talat and I
have grown very accustomed to the explosions that rock Baghdad on a regular
basis these days. He looked at me and said: "You know, Dahr, I used to read
about how the Lebanese got used to the bombs in Beirut. I never thought that
could happen to me, yet here I am."
"I know, and now me too," I said, and we laughed together at the insanity of
what has become our everyday life while working in occupied Baghdad.
We left Adhamiya and traveled to the Asha'ab Iraqi Police station. As I
mentioned before, we had obtained written permission from Brigadier General
Amer Ali from the Central Command Headquarters of the Iraqi Police in
Baghdad. General Ali is also the Assistant Commander of all of the IPs in
Baghdad.
So we felt pretty confident about getting into this police station to
conduct some more interviews.
At Asha'ab Police Station, US soldiers were scattered across the roof, and a
Humvee sat near the entrance at the suicide blockades.
Nevertheless, we wheeled around back and attempted to enter. After all, we
were carrying our handwritten permission from the Assistant Commander of the
Iraqi Police.
Our entry was denied. Despite seeing our permission letter, an American
Military Policeman named Schneider took my passport and disappeared inside
for 15 minutes. He returned, handed me my passport after calling in a check
to the CPA and told me: "You must contact the Public Affairs Officer at the
CPA for information about the Iraqi Police stations. Press aren't allowed
inside."
So, in sum, a US MP effectively usurped the authority of an Iraqi Police
Brigadier General who is the Assistant Commander of all of the police in
Baghdad.
So much for sovereignty.
It brought to mind something said by Bassim Mahmoud Hamid, the Iraqi Police
spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, in a recent interview at the
CPA:
"We are ready to take over the security situation, because we know how to do
this. The Americans will commit the biggest mistake in their life if they
don't let the Iraqis control the security situation."
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Dahr Jamail is Baghdad correspondent for The NewStandard. He is an Alaskan devoted to covering the untold stories from occupied Iraq. You can help Dahr continue his crucial work in Iraq by making donations. For more information or to donate to Dahr, visit http://newstandardnews.net/iraqdispatches .