Giant U.S. Embassy project dismays Iraqis
By Liz
SlyTribune foreign correspondentPublished May 29, 2006
BAGHDAD -- On the western bank of the Tigris
River, scenes of intense activity rarely witnessed in Iraq are unfolding behind
the fortified perimeter of the closely guarded Green Zone.
Trucks shuttle
building materials to and fro. Cranes, at least a dozen of them, punch toward
the sky. Concrete structures are beginning to take form. At a time when most
Iraqis are enduring blackouts of up to 22 hours a day, the site is floodlighted
by night so work can continue around the clock.
This is to be the new
U.S. Embassy in Iraq, and it will be the biggest embassy in the world. It also
is the biggest construction project under way in battered Baghdad, where the
only other cranes rising from the skyline belong to Saddam Hussein's abandoned
project to build the world's biggest mosque.
The irony is not lost on
Mohammed Jasim, 48, a truck driver who was forced out of his home last month by
sectarian violence and now is squatting in an abandoned building just across the
river from the $592million embassy project.
"They could build houses, or
they could bring security to Baghdad," Jasim complained as he sat in the shade
of a big tree on the riverbank. "But it's clear they only came here for their
own benefit because you can see how much money they are spending across the
river."
Though the site is an open secret, U.S. Embassy officials,
currently based in Hussein's former Republican Palace, are forbidden to discuss
it.
Senate report reviews project
The few details available are
contained in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Scheduled for
completion in June 2007, the 104-acre embassy compound, roughly the size of the
Vatican, will resemble a mini-state, entirely independent from the outside
world. It will generate its own power, pump its own sewage and draw its own
water.
Within the compound there will be six buildings containing 619
apartments for diplomats, a barrack for Marine guards, separate residences for
the ambassador and his deputy, a gym, a swimming pool, a club, a food court, a
beauty salon, a vehicle workshop and a warehouse. There is also, the report
noted, an emergency exit.
The Senate report marveled at the meticulous
planning.
"Most major construction projects undertaken in Iraq since 2003
have not met these standards," it said. "No large-scale U.S.-funded construction
program in Iraq has yet met its schedule or budget," the report added, noting
that this one is on schedule and within budget.
Iraqis also are marveling
at the scale of the project and the rapid rate at which it is starting to rise
above the walls of the Green Zone, which is off-limits to most
Iraqis.
"Why are they only building this building?" asked Abdul Kareem
al-Khiat, sales manager of the 14-story Babylon Hotel, whose riverside rooms
have panoramic views of the construction site. "All the Iraqis are asking this
question."
A lack of security is the main answer. Violence has deterred
all but the most meager reconstruction projects. The wreckage of the ministries
and government buildings destroyed by American missiles in 2003 still litter
Baghdad's landscape. The blackened shells of shops and mosques blown up since
then by suicide bombers add to the air of decay hanging over the
city.
For security reasons, the new embassy is being built entirely by
imported labor. The contractor, First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting
Co., which was linked to human-trafficking allegations by a Chicago Tribune
investigation last year, has hired a workforce of 900 mostly Asian workers who
live on the site.
Most American civilians working in Baghdad are
forbidden from leaving the Green Zone because of the dangers that lie beyond.
The Senate report questioned "the net worth of having an embassy when it is so
isolated" and suggested that purchasing a video teleconferencing system would
"improve interaction" with local Iraqis.
Many Iraqi politicians also
rarely leave the Green Zone. Government ministries are there, and politicians
live there to avoid the hazards of commuting in and out of the zone. As Iraq's
third government in as many years takes office, there is a chronic shortage of
housing.
An alien experience
To most Iraqis, the Green Zone is
another planet. Only one much-bombed entry point admits ordinary Iraqis, who
must endure body searches at each of five checkpoints before being admitted to
one small portion of the zone.
Though it's now officially called the
International Zone, suggesting a foreign country, those living inside still
refer to the rest of Iraq as "the Red Zone."
From his Red Zone vantage
point, al-Khiat often looks across the river and wonders about life on the other
side. The 6-square-mile chunk of central Baghdad was carved out for the use of
the U.S. occupation authority in the months following the invasion, setting
off-limits the roads, parks and restaurants that used to be a part of his daily
itinerary.
"I haven't been there in three years," al-Khiat said. "I would
like to go, but I don't dare. Someone might shoot
me."
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