Iraqis Invade Media Hotel Demanding Work, Aid/Mounting anger among Iraqis, where will that lead?!/islam-online(AFP)/ May 3

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-05/03/article09.shtml

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“Bush promised to liberate Iraq and he has not done anything for us. At least Saddam gave us our salaries," Iraqis

Iraqis Invade Media Hotel Demanding Work, Aid
BAGHDAD, May 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - "There is no money, no work and no electricity. What are you doing here?" an exasperated Iraqi shouts in the face of a U.S. soldier guarding Baghdad's Palestine Hotel.

Ready to work as interpreters, drivers or technicians, some 200 Iraqis Saturday, May 3, invaded the lobby of the city center hotel housing foreign journalists under U.S. protection to demand jobs and aid from the United States, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"People want a lot of things, money, work, petrol for their cars and they also want someone to guide them, to tell them what to do," Ghanem Yussef told AFP.

"People here are very poor, they have nothing and what are the Americans doing?" demanded the 40-year-old.

Each day, dozens of Iraqis line up at the Palestine Hotel looking for U.S.
officials to hand in job applications and vent their frustrations.

"This is chaos. They promised us work and money. Where is the government? Where are the leaders?" cried a man in the middle of the crowd, who was promptly ejected from the hotel by staff and U.S. soldiers.

Some of the demonstrators then sat on the ground outside the hotel entrance to continue their protest.

"This isn't the place to address your concerns," a U.S. soldier told the Iraqis. "Where then?" asked a job seeker. "I don't know," admitted the soldier.

In a city where rumors take the place of real information and where official announcements are repeatedly contradicted, the protestors here wanted answers.

"We were told that work would start again. That we would be paid 20 dollars. Why these lies? Why such chaos?" Hamid Abbas, a former civil servant at the oil ministry, wanted to know.

Another waved a job application that he bought for 250 dinars (about 10 cents) in the street in the front of the hotel.

"Iraqis are selling these forms but then you don't know where to turn them in. And sometimes you find ones in the gutter that have been filled out," he said in disgust.

In the almost all-male crowd, an old woman flashed her social security card. "I haven't seen anything for two months. Why? Why?" she asked reporters.

Washington stands charged by many Iraqis with failing to take adequate measures to rebuild the country and restore order and basic public services since Baghdad fell to U.S. forces on April 9.

The interim U.S.-led administration has called on civil servants to return to work, offering modest salaries paid in dollars.

But aid groups have added their voices to a chorus of criticism particularly over the desperate state of Iraqi hospitals.

Beneath the anger at the Palestine Hotel, despair appeared to be eating away at hope for the future.

"I don't know what to do anymore," confessed Ibrahim, an English teacher who said he has been waiting "in vain" for more than two weeks for a response to his application to work as a translator.

"The future is bleak. If they don't form a government soon, the situation will deteriorate quickly," he said with an eye on the crowd.

"I don't understand. The Americans invaded Iraq in two weeks but since then nothing has happened. You don't know who to turn to. The situation will lead us straight to war, be it among Iraqis or with the Americans," warned Yussef Ghanem, a former English student.

Next to him, Abdul, who introduced himself as an ex-member of the opposition to deposed strongman Saddam Hussein, tried to control his anger as he spoke.

"Bush promised to liberate Iraq and he has not done anything for us. At least Saddam gave us our salaries," he said.

Iraq Ripe For Humanitarian Disaster

In a separate related development, the UN chief of mission in Baghdad warned Saturday, May 3, that Iraq was still ripe for a humanitarian disaster even though the shooting has all but stopped, saying too many people were going without food, water and power.

"We have not yet got over the hump. The conditions for the development of a humanitarian disaster still exist," Ramiro Lopes da Silva said, flanked by other UN officials who were ordered by Washington to leave Iraq, two days before the invasion began March 20.

"It's (already) a humanitarian disaster in the sense basic services have
collapsed or are at the risk of collapsing if we don't put them back into shape rather quickly," he said.

Lopes da Silva, making his first briefing to reporters since returning to
Baghdad Thursday, said nearly two-thirds of Iraqis were fully dependent on food aid and that malnutrition was rampant.

Many are drinking unsuitable water which is causing infections, especially in the south, and still have no electricity. Hospitals which were looted in the aftermath of the occupation are overwhelmed and lack medicines and equipment.

Late Monday, April 28, U.S. President George W. Bush insisted "Iraq can be an example of peace and prosperity and freedom to the entire Middle East".

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Mounting anger among Iraqis, where will that lead?!