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Falluja Fears for Future
By Michael Georgy
November 23, 2004
Braving snipers, Falluja residents walked past demolished homes to an aid distribution centre but American granola bars and Frosted Flakes cereal failed to raise hopes of a brighter future.
"We have no water and this is the only food we get. We still have the feeling that our homes can be bombed at any time," said Muhammad Ali, 58, one of the few civilians who stayed in Falluja during this month's U.S.-led offensive against rebels.
"How can our life improve? The Americans are back and the guerrillas and the people of Falluja will not accept them so we will have more death."
The American assault, which crushed insurgents and foreign Muslim militants, was designed to help the Iraqi interim government stabilise Falluja, Iraq's most rebellious city, 32 miles west of Baghdad.
"We will never accept the Americans in Falluja. It will never be calm as long as they are here," said plumber Bilal Guthman, 23.
Most of Falluja's 350,000 people fled before the offensive began on November 8. Those who stayed were mostly men who wanted to protect their homes against theft.
Some of them gather every day at the aid station and walk away with a bag of cereals, granola bars and bagel chips.
On Tuesday, Marine lawyer Major Tim Hansen promised compensation for houses damaged in the fierce offensive.
"We will do our best to help the Iraqi people," he said, adding that the Americans had started employing local people to clean the streets, creating jobs around the aid centre.
But Hansen was bombarded with questions by Iraqis still worried about their every step in a dangerous city.
"There are dead dogs in front of our homes. They stink. Do we have the right to move away?" asked one man. "Are a group of friends allowed to gather in one home at night to feel safer?" asked another.
A third elderly man who said his house was completely destroyed walked away shaking his head when he was told to ask a Marine lawyer in his neighborhood about compensation.
The Marines have imposed a curfew during all hours except for 8 to 12 in the morning. But some Iraqis complain that is not enough time carry out important tasks.
"How can I move around Falluja and the snipers to try and find out if my relatives across town are still alive?" asked Abdullah Taha, who is unemployed.
Others who sent their wives and children away to safer towns are lonely in a city that seems like a ghost town, aside from sporadic blasts and bursts of gunfire.
"I rented a home for my family to be safe and I stayed here to work to pay the rent and now the Americans won't let me leave," said Alaa Taha, 32, a builder.
Security was the main U.S. priority, said one officer, Captain Read Omohundro.
"Right now, our focus is eliminating the rest of the weapon caches that the insurgents are using against us and primarily to help transitions, so that the Iraqi government can take control of Falluja, put in the Iraqi security forces, the new police and continue governing Falluja," he said.
A member of the U.S.-backed New Iraqi Army said there was only one way to pacify Falluja.
"As soon as the Americans leave, Falluja will be a happy city," he said declining to give his name.
But the Americans are unlikely to leave anytime soon, and Falluja residents say anti-U.S. resentment will only deepen when people return to homes reduced to rubble or damaged in aggressive weapons searches.
As an explosion echoed across the city, resident Omat Takhrati said: "That's what the future holds for Falluja."
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