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Ordinary Iraqis Believe There Is No Justice, No Fairness

by The Guardian (England)
Each time one comes to Iraq, one is struck by the increasing depression, the increasing fear, the sense of hopelessness that you come across when you talk to ordinary people.......of giving up, of believing that there is no justice, no sense of fairness, and that what is ahead of them is more tragedy.
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Hans von Sponeck

Former UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, interviewed while on his way to Baghdad to meet with Iraqi officials to discuss a peaceful resolution to the conflict

Tuesday February 4, 2003

I was last in Iraq in November, and the situation is continually getting worse. The human situation is characterised by increases in unemployment, the school system remains in very bad shape and is not getting any better, but most of all the trauma of the prospect of war is leading to depression. And the closer you get to the area from where military confrontation is likely to start, which is Kuwait and the Gulf, the greater the tension and the greater the fear.
Remember that unlike Afghanistan, Iraq is a very urbanised society, with big cities: this will not be a desert war. This will be a war against the cities: it will be a high-tech war, from the air, with no doubt large numbers of casualties. It's difficult to understand how the British government and American government can argue that they will target the military in that war. That's impossible, because the military will be meshed in with the civilian population in the cities: in Kirkuk, in Mosul, in Basrah and in Baghdad.

And when the air war is over and ground troops enter Iraq, then of course one will see casualties on the allied side. It will take a long time for Iraq, even when there isn't a war but certainly when there is, to return to equilibrium and normal life.

I am now here in Amman with a number of other persons, all of whom are representing different aspects of a peace initiative that is in the making - we are, if you wish, the preparatory group for this initiative, going tomorrow to Baghdad in order to meet with the officials there.

Because conflict can only be solved when one faces each other, when one understands the other's position. I had my professional life in the United Nations, and I understand what dialogue means and what dialogue can achieve: and one has to talk to any adversary, including the government of Iraq, if the intention is to provide a peaceful resolution of conflict.

Each time one comes to Iraq, one is struck by the increasing depression, the increasing fear, the sense of hopelessness that you come across when you talk to ordinary people - and I do that, in restaurants, on the streets, in the cybercafe, in the hotel lobby. And what you see and hear there is a manifestation of a great sense of hopelessness, of giving up, of believing that there is no justice, no sense of fairness, and that what is ahead of them is more tragedy.

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