Monday 18 December 2006

What about Beled?

“I don’t think that it’s going to be solved, day by day it’s getting worse, frankly; I don’t know what to do”.
It’s very common to hear such words from anyone who lives in Iraq; however, it’s uncommon to hear such thing from “Nasooh”.
That what I’m used to call him “Nasooh” which means advisor. By no means is such personality common in this world.
A young surgeon who is easily recognized by his loud laugh, has a modern mentality and Arabic morals, full of wit and enthusiasm , generous, , optimistic, obese, cares about everybody and thinks about them, moreover; ready to help them. We have been friends for six years now, I consider him more than a friend; he is really my “God Father”.
We used to sit together for hours discussing different matters especially; our county’s problem. He used to tell me a lot about his town “Beled”; how nice it is, how good the people are and how the society is mixed of Sunnis and Shiites living together.
Beled is an agricultural town to the north of Baghdad, It’s characterized by the shrine of “saiyed Mohamed”, the famous Shiite’s imam. People go to this town to visit this shrine.
After 1982 Saddam Hussein ordered to shovel large areas in Beled and ordered to execute 400 of its people after accusing them of being members of AL-Daawa party; some of them were Sunnis.
After being a fully qualified specialist in surgery, Nasooh decided to work in his town as a surgeon in the main hospital there. He wanted to stay away from Baghdad which is unsafe and to live in his town with his family.
In the last year, things started to change, I couldn’t see him anymore, the insurgent have got full control on the way between Baghdad and Beled, they decided to kill any Shiite who use this way. Nasooh was unable to come to Baghdad, he couldn’t meet the girl who he is in love with. He wished he could turn up to say goodbye when I left Iraq, however, this was impossible.
The optimistic guy remained in his town living in peace until a couple of months ago, when Al- mujahedin have laid a siege around Beled and started attacking the town by mortars. Everyday tens of people were killed more than that number were injured and nobody has done anything to help people in Beled. For more than two months, nobody was allowed to get outside of the town, there is a serious problem with the amount of fuel at the moment, shortage in electricity and water supply, and it's not long before starvation will begin.
When I talked to Nasooh in the last time his voice was completely different. I used to consider him a source of optimisms, he was really desperate. “I can’t feel happy while my country is suffering” he said “We’re being massacred by the name of Allah, I’ve read a lot about killers but there is no one like those beasts”. He kept saying “Iraq has lost a lot, as losing has become common and winning has become rare, people here live with desperation”.
Nasooh is the only surgeon in Beled hospital at the moment, he has to do all the surgical operations by himself, sometimes he is being helped by one of his colleagues. However, he is on calls all the time.
Nowadays, to flee outside the country is the only way to live be safe, however, people in Beled are deprived from this opportunity, even university students are unable to attend their classes as nobody dares to leave the town.
I’m praying to Allah asking Him to protect my friend and the people in Beled. But, there is a very big question which I’d like to ask; as many people think that the best solution for our problem is to divide our country into regions according to sectors or ethnicity. What will be the fate of people of Beled, Al-Dujail, and many other regions? What will happen to Sunnis in Basrah or Shiites in Mousel? I know that they’re being killed already, however, are we going to sacrifice the rest?
As a half Sunni and half Shiite person, I feel that there are two spirits inside me, should they fight each other? Which one should I support? Who will win? I’m sure I’ll not. Should I be divided into two halves?
The questions above are eating me up inside, I can’t hate a half of me and if i could which half should it be?

despite the fact that we have to accept loosing nearly everything it doesn’t make loosing my only Godfather any easier…..

3 comments:

Bassam Sebti said...

Hello there,

Your friend will be in my prayer. Thanks a for this facinating story. It reminded me with my friends whom I terribly miss. Most of them left Iraq as they could not endure the hell there.

As for your Shiite/Sunnis souls, Keep them inside because that's the way it is. That's the way it should be and that's the way Iraq will survive.

3eeraqimedic said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
A&Eiraqi said...

Hi
3eeraqimedic &B.T
thank you for your words, I also hope he will be all right, however, the circumstances in his town is getting worse, they're suffering.
We used to be mixed, my family is a mixture of different sectors, everybody has his own religious and life attitude. I used to live like that and I thought the whole Iraq is like that.
All what I think aout is peopel, I think they start losing the hope .