By Dahr Jamail
Asia Times

AMMAN, Jordan - After two devastating sieges of Fallujah in
April and November of 2004, which left thousands of Iraqis
dead and hundreds of thousands without homes, the aftermath
of the US attempt to rid the city of resistance fighters in
an effort to improve security in the country continues to
plague the residents of Fallujah, and Iraq as a whole.

Simmering anger grows with time among Fallujans who, after
having most of their city destroyed by the US military
onslaught, have seen promises of rebuilding by both the US
military and Iraqi government remain mostly unfulfilled.

"There are daily war crimes being committed in Fallujah, even
now," said Mohammed Abdulla, the executive director of the
Study Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Fallujah
(SCHRDF). His organization works within the destruction of
Fallujah, trying to monitor the plight of residents, bring
them reconstruction aid, and document the war crimes and
illegal weapons that were used during the November siege.

"Now we have none of the rebuilding which was promised, which
people need so desperately in order to get their lives back
in order," said Abdulla during a recent interview with Asia
Times Online in Amman.

Doctors working inside the city continue to complain of US
and Iraqi security forces impeding their medical care. Along
with the continuance of strict US military checkpoints,
residents in the city say the treatment they receive from
both the US military and Iraqi security forces operating
inside Fallujah is both degrading and humiliating. This
treatment is also being perceived by most as intentional.

"The checkpoints are too obstructive," said Dr Amer Ani, who
volunteers at Fallujah General Hospital. "Fighting has
resumed inside the city, because in the last two weeks there
have been man-to-man clashes in different districts of the
city. This has caused ambulances to have difficulty entering
and exiting the city, especially the main hospital.

"I work in the refugee camp on the border, and because of the
checkpoint on the outskirts of the city, no patients from
that camp can enter the city," said Ani. "Thus, they are
forced to go to another clinic 14 kilometers from them,
whereas the closest treatment in the city is less than one
kilometer from them."

Ani went on to add that the main hospital and several primary
health clinics in the city need rebuilding, but the building
materials are being prevented from entering by US forces.

Dr Riyad al-Obeidy, who works in Ramadi, is also currently
volunteering inside Fallujah. "Previously, the Ministry of
Health was delivering aid into the city, but now this is
prohibited, for unknown reasons," he said. "Thus, now there
are shortages of external fixators, surgical sets for
operations, and trauma equipment. There is really a
humanitarian health problem. People are living as refugees
inside their city, living in tents - so we have lack of clean
water and hygiene, so there is rampant spreading of typhoid.
With summer coming, this will all get worse."

Promises made prior to the siege by the Iraqi government and
US military to assist in reconstruction of the city appear to
have fallen flat.

According to SCHRDF's Abdulla, "There is some reconstruction,
but this is only being done by Fallujans and because the
government of Iraq is only helping just a little."

That point was also made by Dr Abrahim Aziz (last name
changed to protect identity), who works as a volunteer inside
Fallujah. "There is a little rebuilding happening now,
electric wires are being replaced," he said during a phone
interview from Fallujah. "But the hospitals and clinics have
only been painted and the holes in the walls closed up."

Dr Fawzi, an engineer who owns a cement factory in Fallujah,
said the southern districts of Fallujah remain closed, and
only 10% of the buildings and homes destroyed have been
rebuilt by residents themselves. Fawzi was involved in
negotiating compensation for residents of the city, and
presented a figure of US$600 million to the US military, who
agreed to pay the amount. But the Iraqi government did not
agree.

"We went to Baghdad but the [then-premier Iyad] Allawi office
told us we could have only $100 million, and they couldn't
promise anything because everything would change with the
elections [of January]," said Fawzi. "We disputed this
amount, and the government said they would give us 20% of the
$600 million, which we refused because this was not enough.
At this meeting were Americans, military and civilian both,
and members of the Iraqi government."

Dr Aziz said that only 10% of the promised compensation had
been paid out to date, and added that the health situation
was "horrible, we are now having cholera outbreaks".

Recent drinking water tests performed by SCHRDF found that
there was no potable water available inside Fallujah.
"Everybody knows this, and this is why we are making
announcements for people to boil their water for 10 minutes,"
said Abdulla.

According to him, two-thirds of the city lacks electricity
because so many electrical wires were cut, and any
reconstruction occurring at the moment is only being carried
out by the residents of Fallujah, with no outside
help. "There is little financial aid coming from the
government, if any at all."

Dr al-Obeidy said the same. "There are some payouts being
made, but it is a small amount. But then recently the Iraqi
government stopped all the compensation payments. So now the
people are very angry about this, especially because the
Americans promised to give each family $500, but there is
nothing until now," he said. "So if a house is completely
destroyed, how can $500 be enough? It cannot."

While it is estimated that 80% of the residents of Fallujah
have returned home, roughly 60% of the houses and buildings
inside the city sustained enough damage to make them
inhabitable. Most people continue to live in tents, or amid
the rubble of their homes. Curfews remain in the city, with
residents not allowed on the streets past 9pm, and entire
districts remain without power.

Abu Nawaf, a 42-year-old businessman who lives near the Jolan
quarter of the city, said in a recent phone interview from
Fallujah, "There is no rebuilding happening here at all and
the Americans and Iraqi National Guard [ING] are patrolling
all the time, even the side streets."

Abdulla commented on the volatile situation: "There is no law
in the streets, and there was a case of an ING killing an
Iraqi policeman and people asked for an inquiry." He
added: "Americans were inside with the ING who are peshmerga
[members of the Kurdish militia]. The ING inside now are all
peshmerga and Badr forces [Shi'ite militia of the Supreme
Council for Islamic Revolution] who are doing the same
humiliations and bad treatment that the Americans are doing."

The SCHRDF has reported that US soldiers currently occupy
seven primary schools in the city, causing children to study
in tents.

Meanwhile, Nawaf continues to look for his three brothers who
remain missing. The US military painted on his home that
three bodies were found there, but Nawaf has been unable to
locate them and insists they remain missing.

Recent clashes and roadside bombs in Fallujah have greatly
impeded any return to normalcy within the city, along with
ongoing complaints from residents of harassment and poor
treatment from the security forces. Thus reconstruction, as
important as it is for the city, remains in the background
for residents who continue to testify of alleged war crimes
during the most recent siege, as well as seething resentment
over the destruction and lack of rebuilding in their city.

"There are plenty of women in Fallujah who have testified
they were raped by American soldiers," said Abdulla. "They
are nearby the secondary school for girls inside Fallujah.
When people came back to Fallujah the first time they found
so many girls who were totally naked and they had been
killed."

As Nawaf's situation shows, the number of missing people
remains one of the larger concerns. "We don't have a total
number of people killed because so many people are
missing ... this makes it impossible for now to get an
accurate count of the dead," said Abdulla.

Another Iraqi doctor who is a member of an Iraqi medical team
that also investigates human-rights issues, reported that his
group estimates that 60,000 Iraqis are in detention
facilities throughout Iraq. During the interview in Amman, he
said the US military had only registered the names of 17,000
detainees; they are being held without charges and their
whereabouts unknown, even to their families. Speaking on
condition of anonymity, the doctor said, "Of course this only
pushes people more towards the resistance, because people are
eventually left desperate enough to begin fighting the
Americans. People can only take so much."

Dr Fawzi, who is also reporting to the SCHRDF, expressed
concern about the number of people missing from Fallujah.
"For deaths, we counted over 750 at first," he commented.
"There are so many missing people and it is so difficult to
have the figures of dead and detained, even though we know so
many more were killed. People are afraid to admit their son
might be detained because the Americans might arrest or
retaliate against the rest of the family."

Thus, the suffering of the residents of Fallujah continues as
fighting simmers once again within the devastated city and
the drastic heat of summer approaches.

"The Americans have committed a very big massacre to the
people of Fallujah. The crime of Fallujah is the greatest
crime ever," Abdulla said sternly. "This will remain as a
black spot in American history forever. Whatever the American
people will do, even if they get rid of those liars who are
in their government, they will need a long time for people to
forget what they have done in Iraq and in Fallujah in order
for us to deal with them as a civilized people who have
humanity."

Abdulla, like residents of the city, wondered why the US
military will not let unembedded media into Fallujah. "Why
have they not let the media inside Fallujah," he asked. "If
America says she is right, then why did she stop two UN
investigators from getting inside Fallujah?"

With the initial justification for the siege of Fallujah
being that the military operation was conducted in order to
bring security and stability for the elections of January 30,
it is clear that this goal was not obtained. Scores of Iraqis
died on that day alone, and the situation throughout Iraq has
only continued to deteriorate since.

More recently, since the latest interim government in Iraq
was sworn in in April, well over 750 Iraqis have been killed
in violence that continues to spread throughout the war-torn
country.

Thus, rather than improving security and stability in
Fallujah and Iraq, the siege of Fallujah has accomplished
nothing more than devastating the city and spreading the
Iraqi resistance into other cities, such as Qaim, Beji,
Baquba, Mosul, Ramadi, Latifiya and many areas of Baghdad.

It could easily be argued now that the siege of Fallujah
accomplished the exact opposite of its stated goals - rather
than bringing increased security and stability, it has
inflamed tempers, deepened sectarian rifts and spurred the
Iraqi resistance into levels of attack rarely seen prior to
the siege.

Abdulla paints a dismal picture with his final comments on
the situation in Fallujah: "The mood is that people will
never forget what was done to them and their city. I don't
think we'll see the end of this. People will never forget to
have their revenge on the American troops, but they would
like to prepare themselves for another attack. This is what
the Fallujan negotiators had warned the Americans of. Lack of
security, which is ongoing in Iraq now, is one these
results."

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Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist from Anchorage,
Alaska. He has reported from inside occupied Iraq for eight
months. He is currently reporting from Amman, Jordan.
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