Local Iraqis have hope for homeland

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by margaret reist

For the first time in 13 years, Zainab Al-Baaj went home.

For 10 days she traversed Iraq, one free of Saddam Hussein but not free of strife.

An older place, more than a decade later, one with peeling paint on the buildings and garbage in the streets, one whose people are tired, in transition, with no clear view for the future.

But a place, Al-Baaj said, with signs of hope: stores filled with goods, where some children are getting backpacks and supplies for school, where teaching wages for her stepsister went from $3 a month to $180.

"It's just going to take time," she said. It's what she told her relatives, frustrated with the situation in their country today, one year after the United States invaded.

"They got rid of Saddam. Everything else can be done in steps. That's what I told my family when I was there (in September). We don't have a magic wand."

For several Iraqis who have made their homes in Lincoln, their happiness at having Saddam gone is tempered by the state of Iraq a year later.

"I was so excited and so happy when they were able to go to Baghdad," said Zainab Al-Batat, who worked with the opposition before leaving Iraq in 1996.

"What is happening after that makes me a little upset. - With all the problems now happening, the killing, it makes me a little worried about my people there."

Nizar Zhaiya, who also left Iraq in 1996, never did believe the United States should have invaded Iraq. He wanted to see Saddam unseated, but by some other method.

"There is liberation and then there is occupation," he said. "Just mistake after mistake after mistake. And it's costly."

U.N. sanctions against Iraq before the war didn't hurt Saddam, but were devastating to the Iraqi people, said Zhaiya, who traveled to Iraq in April 2003 to do assessments for projects to rebuild the country.

The level of poverty there, much of it incurred during the U.N. sanctions, is striking, he said.

"There is a lot to be done, but the security situation does not allow them to conduct the work to be done," he said.

On her travels in September, Al-Baaj was well aware of the dangers.

"A lot of times I feel (danger) while I am here," she said. "I was looking forward all these years to visit my family. If it was safer I would have stayed longer."

When they traveled from Basra to Baghdad, they had to wait for U.S. soldiers to remove bombs from two bridges.

And at night, she said, everyone stays home because it is safer. The markets clear out by 8 p.m. so people don't have to use generators - electricity is scarce.

"That's why people are not rushing to buy food and refrigerators," she said. "Because at any minute you can lose power."

Borders also need to be more secure, she said. Now soldiers securing the borders don't speak Arabic and don't understand what is happening, who is coming and going, she said. And she believes people crossing those borders are responsible for a lot of the violence.

Al-Baaj said she was concerned enough about the border situation to contact authorities about it when she returned.

Zhaiya believes the unrest today is occurring because the U.S. government didn't have a postwar plan.

Al-Batat, a mother of two boys whose husband also worked with the opposition, agrees.

"They should have planned before they go to Iraq, to have an interim government before they go," she said. "This is not only my opinion but (also that of) many Iraqis."

Ali Al-Basam, who owns Sinbad's Restaurant and Aljazeera Market in Lincoln, is more optimistic that things will improve. His family wants a government formed. They are worried about safety, but they are hopeful.

"They have a better life than before, 100 times," he said. "They hope it gets better and better."

When he talks with family still living in Iraq, he said, they tell him to thank Americans, thank them for unseating Saddam.

Despite the problems, he said, life there is better for one overriding reason: freedom.

"You can say anything you want, can go anywhere you want," he said. "That' s the important thing to people."

Esmael Al-Refaey, who was an underground journalist before coming to the United States, said he supported the United States invading Iraq but said U.S. officials have made some mistakes since Saddam was overthrown.

But he believes it is possible for things to improve and said the United States needs to work not only on forming a government but improving the economy.

One thing that surprised Al-Baaj during her trip was how little evidence - aside from government buildings - there was of the bombing.

More striking, she said, was the poverty, the years of neglect during Saddam's reign. When her family left, the government cleared out her father's store, got rid of everything, she said.

Despite the many needs - for updated hospitals and clinics, for an improved educational system - Al-Baaj is optimistic things in her country will get better in time.

"We're praying. It has to get better. We have to work really hard."

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@;journalstar.com.