LAT: Military officials defend new barrier in Baghdad
The structure, meant to separate Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, isn't permanent, Iraqi and U.S. spokesmen say.
By Tina Susman, Times Staff Writer
April 24, 2007
BAGHDAD — U.S. and Iraqi military officials scrambling to deflect criticism of a wall being erected to separate a volatile Sunni Muslim neighborhood from surrounding Shiite areas insisted Monday that the structure is not a wall at all.
It's a barrier.
The distinction comes because it is a temporary structure, they said of the 14,000-pound slabs of concrete placed side by side on the edge of Sunni-dominated Adhamiya, in northeastern Baghdad. When completed, it is expected to be 3 miles long.
The comments were the latest attempt to quiet a controversy that erupted last week after the U.S. military unit building the structure proudly announced its mission and dubbed the project "The Great Wall of Adhamiya." In a press release, it said Adhamiya, which has fallen into severe disrepair as a result of the war, would be like "an exclusive gated community" when the barrier was completed.
Adhamiya residents, though, said the divider would aggravate sectarian tensions and hurt business on both sides by depriving Sunnis of Shiite customers and vice versa. On Monday, hundreds marched through the neighborhood calling for construction to be halted. Some carried banners reading, "No to the sectarian wall."
"We are protesting this vicious wall! This is a mass detention for the people of Adhamiya," said Hazim Ubaydi, 32, who accused Iraq's Shiite-led government of wanting to cage in Sunnis.
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite, said Sunday night that he opposed the project and had ordered it halted....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq24apr24,0,4102621.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
