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Baghdad Life
Journal correspondents report on evolving conditions in Iraq

‘Guests in Our Own Country’

By Gina Chon

At a press conference today to discuss security improvements in Diyala province, an Iraqi journalist brought up an unrelated topic. He told U.S. military officials of being mistreated at a checkpoint to get into the International Zone (formerly the Green Zone), where the press conference took place. He said the guards gave him a hard time and were rude to him. Another Iraqi journalist raised his hand and said he faced similar treatment. A U.S. military official said he would look into it and take care of it.

Foreigners do seem to get better treatment than Iraqis in the International Zone. We are trusted more than the locals. Guards are more polite to us. A U.S. official told me he never meets Iraqis at the U.S. embassy compound because it’s humiliating for them to go there, waiting in long lines to be searched in their own country.

I asked an Iraqi friend who often has to come to the International Zone for work how he feels about that. He answered that he feels like a criminal, like the Americans think all Iraqis are bad. “We are guests in our own country,” he said. “Actually, we are worse than a guest because at least you are nice to your guest. We are like slaves.”

Of course, the American military has reason to be cautious. There have been infiltrations of U.S. military bases and the International Zone, like the suicide bomber who blew himself up in the parliament building last April. So the searches and the long lines are a necessity.

But with that comes resentment. Part of the anger from the Blackwater shooting that killed 11 people in September comes from Iraqis feeling helpless and not in control in their own country. At a recent lunch with journalists, the Blackwater shooting came up. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said there is anger among the Iraqi people. He said there must be Iraqi regulations for foreign security companies operating here, but there is a question of whether the companies will accept those rules. He added that Iraq is supposed to be a sovereign nation. “There must be some sense of accountability,” he said. “Even the Americans wouldn’t accept a situation like that.”

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