By Greg Rollins. Greg is a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization
that asks, "What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline
and self-sacrifice to nonviolent peacemaking that armies devote to war?"
I recently talked to a foreigner I know who lives in the
Green Zone, Saddam’s old palace grounds in the centre of Baghdad. The Green
Zone is about four kilometres long and two kilometres wide. It holds the
biggest U.S. embassy in the world, the British embassy, along with several
others, the Iraqi parliament and dozens of foreign organizations and
contractors. The man I spoke to works for a telecommunications company. He said
the Green Zone is like a prison. He wants to leave it and live else where in
Baghdad but his company won’t let him.
One condition
that makes his life there so difficult is the myriad levels of security. Almost
every major contractor or organization in the Green Zone has its own security
unit. Each one is an entity unto itself. He refers to these security guards as
cowboys, strutting around with their guns strapped to their thighs. Many
security companies have their own checkpoints in front of their buildings. He
said every time he leaves his apartment he must pass through two of these
checkpoints on his street alone. It can take him as long as fifteen minutes to
pass through them. I asked him if the guards ever recognized him and let him
pass without checking him. He said they do recognize him but always search him.
To pass through
some of these security zones the guy showed me several of his ID badges. Each
one allows him to enter a different place. The badges reminded me of stories
about Beirut in the 1970s when journalists needed different forms to move
through the checkpoints of the numerous militias. The guy told me that each
badge had different restrictions. Some stated he needed an escort to go places,
some read he needed prior permission to enter areas. I asked him if it was true
that there was a McDonald’s in the Green Zone. He said there was but you needed
a special badge to go there. My teammate Tom asked if the badge had a picture
of Ronald McDonald on it.
The man I spoke
with was also irritated by the fact that the Iraqis who work for him are not
allowed to go anywhere in the Green Zone with out him escorting them. Every
morning he has to pick them up at one of the entrances and every night he has
to drop them off there.
The guy did not
like the behaviour of the U.S. soldiers in the Green Zone either. He said they
yell at cars to move out of their way, pointing their guns at anyone and
everything. If they drove that way inside the Green Zone, he was afraid to hear
how they drove outside the Green Zone in Iraqi traffic.
From my own experiences in the
Green Zone and from what other people I know who live there have said, life in
such a tight environment is not satisfying. It might be a “safe” place but it
isn’t real. It doesn’t reflect what is happening in Iraq. Most foreigners who
live in the Green Zone never set foot outside its borders. They spend months
here but they have no idea what Iraq is really like. It makes me wonder if
people inside the Green Zone, particularly U.S. military and government
officials, really know what is going on in Iraq at all.