Walls meant to keep the peace have created unforeseen problems Baghdad hasnÂ’t been this quiet in years. But the respite from bloodshed comes at a high price.
Up to 20 feet high in some sections.
Rows after rows of barrier walls divide the city into smaller and smaller areas that protect people from bombings, sniper fire and kidnappings. They also lead to gridlock, rising prices for food and homes, and complaints about living in what feels like a prison.
BaghdadÂ’s walls are everywhere, turning a riverside capital of leafy neighborhoods and palm-lined boulevards where Shiites and Sunnis once mingled into a city of shadows separating the two Muslim sects.
The walls block access to schools, mosques, churches, hotels, homes, markets and even entire neighborhoods — almost anything that could be attacked. For many Iraqis, they have become the iconic symbol of the war.
'Maybe one day they will remove it,' said Kareem Mustapha, a 26-year-old Sadr City resident who lives a five-minute walk from a wall built this spring in the large Shiite district. 'I donÂ’t know when, but it is not soon.'
Indeed, new walls are still going up, the latest one around the northwestern Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, where thousands of Sunnis were slaughtered or expelled in 2006. They could well be around for years to come, reflecting IraqÂ’s fragile peace and enshrining the capitalÂ’s sectarian divisions.
'The walls have stopped gunmen from coming into the neighborhood,' said Salim Ahmed, a 29-year-old oil refinery worker who lives and works in Dora. 'But we also feel that we are in a prison and isolated from the rest of the city.'
In some areas of Baghdad, the walls delay the movement of food and other essential supplies, raising prices. Where successful in preventing attacks and reducing crime, the walls push up the prices of homes.
The U.S. military defends the walls, crediting them with disrupting the movement and supply routes of the Sunni militants of al-Qaida in Iraq and the Shiite militiamen of the so-called special groups. It also disagrees with the notion that the walls are dividing the city alongside sectarian lines.
Nowadays there’s hardly a street in Baghdad without a wall — or a cheaper substitute like barbed wire, palm tree trunks, mounds of dirt or piles of rocks. They’re even used to control pedestrian and vehicular traffic in risky areas.
The U.S. military in April sealed off the southern section of Sadr City to put the American Embassy and Iraqi government offices out of range of rockets and mortars fired by Shiite militiamen. The shelling has since stopped, and quick-thinking entrepreneurs rushed to lay claim to a spot against the wall to sell fruits and vegetables.
Because of the Sadr City wall, Mustapha’s journey to work every day now involves a 15-minute walk and two minibus rides — a major inconvenience considering Baghdad’s unforgiving summer heat. 'It’s both annoying and useful,' Mustapha said 'It makes us feel like prisoners, but things have calmed since they placed it.'
On June 12, the U.S. military began building the new barrier around Hurriyah, tying into two existing walls to prevent Shiite extremists from coming and going at will and presumably from smuggling in arms. 'Our intent is to create a safer Hurriyah neighborhood, with markets that people will want to use without fear and roads safe for people to travel,' Maj. Frank Garcia, a spokesman for U.S. forces in western Baghdad, said Wednesday.