VIDEO: Baghdad 5 years on (Iraqi videographer depicts his city)
Written by Henry Adams
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
"Baghdad is a city of walls," says Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, and his 15-minute film dramatically shows what this means. -- The city this Iraqi filmmaker shows is divided among communities at war with each other. -- Part 1 shows how reduced violence has been effected by severely constricting the movement of people.[1] -- Part 2 shows mourning at a Baghdad cemetery, and also a killing field on the edge of Sadr City where victims of militia gangs are killed; "Iraq is a city full of grief."[2] -- Part 3 shows the plight of the "lost generation" of Baghdad children who "have become adults before their time."[3] -- Abdul-Ahad claims that in three weeks of filming, not one Iraqi mentioned the "surge" to him. -- For some of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's photography, see here. -- For several dozen articles he has written, many of them for the London Guardian, see here. -- For more on the 33-year-old journalist, see here....
U.S. claims that the military surge is bringing stability to Iraq. By traveling through the heart of Baghdad its easy to see by enclosing the Sunni and Shia populations behind 12ft walls, the surge has left the city more divided and desperate than ever. Video by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad.
One Baghdad's killings fields on the edge of Sadr City. The scene of thousands of sectarian murders over the last three years, It is a desolate and evil place: 'Only the killers and the killed ever come here' says Abdul-Ahad. Here in the thousands of unmarked graves lie the victims of militia gangs. Video by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad.
3.
BAGHDAD, 5 YEARS ON (PART 3 OF 3): IRAQ'S LOST GENERATION
An orphanage in Sadr city, where children speak of their hatred of America. A generation of Iraqi children have been radicalised and anti-westernised by the war. Video by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad.
