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thedrifter
04-09-03, 10:47 AM
Some Iraqis Are Grateful, But Still Wary of U.S. Plans

By DEXTER FILKINS


AGHDAD, Iraq, April 8 — President Saddam Hussein's agents were working until the last moment.

This morning, as thousands of American troops moved deeper into Baghdad, a group of Iraqis were being tortured by border police inside a local jail. The Iraqi men said the police were beating them, gouging them with wires and burning them with cigarettes.

But by the time an American Marine convoy arrived, the jailers had fled. The captives, some still shackled and blindfolded, were set free.

"The Americans saved me," said Hamid Neama, a laborer who lives in the Amin neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad. He held out his hands, swollen like overripe fruit. "The police beat my hands, they beat me on my body."

Mr. Neama's account, which was confirmed by a senior Marine officer, was echoed by others in this predominately Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. Yet for all the thanks expressed to American troops and reporters for the campaign being waged against Mr. Hussein's government, many Iraqis say they are worried that America will see in their gratitude a blank check to remake their country.

That, said the residents of this neighborhood today, could inspire a loathing for the Americans at least equal to that felt here for Mr. Hussein. Even Mr. Neama expressed skepticism.

"Of course I'm grateful that the Americans saved me," Mr. Neama said. "But I'm only one of 28 million people in this country. We would not like it if the Americans try to stay here for long."

The people of Amin discussed the future of their neighborhood today as thousands of American marines took up positions less than 100 yards from its edge. The First Marine Division began preparing for a final push into the center of the city, a move that many here fear could lead to civilians being killed.

Neighborhoods like Amin, which like much of eastern Baghdad is overwhelmingly Shiite, have long been said to be a focal point of Mr. Hussein's repression. He is a Sunni Muslim, and has violently suppressed the Shiite majority, some 60 percent of Iraq's population.

A stop in any Iraqi Shiite village, over a glass of black, sugary tea, will more often than not bring forth tales of woe. In America's war against Mr. Hussein's government, the Shiites in Iraq would seem to be natural allies — even if made wary by the American failure to support their uprising in 1991 in southern Iraq.

Mr. Neama, a laborer, said he was standing in front of his brother-in-law's house this morning when two men in civilian clothes drove up and asked him to get into the car. He was blindfolded, he said, and driven to a building about 10 minutes away. There, he said, he was beaten and questioned about his connections to the Americans. Mr. Neama said he insisted that he had performed no special acts for the Americans — who, unknown to him, were then just a few minutes away. "It didn't matter what I said to them," he said. "They accused me of cooperating with the Americans."

Yet Mr. Neama was not convinced that the American invasion would turn out to be a good thing. "It could be good, if the Americans do not try to stay," he said.

At that point, an elderly man, Sultan Mahdi, stepped forward to declaim that such ambivalence was an evasion. "For 75 years I have been alive, and I'll say this," he said. "If the Iraqi people loved Saddam Hussein, the American military wouldn't be able to last one day in Iraq. Not one day. We would attack them.

"If Bush just wants to get rid of Saddam, that's fine, but if he is going to try go alter our basic institutions, like our religion and traditions and culture, then he will have no support."

Mr. Mahdi said most Iraqis would welcome Americans in helping set up a government that would spread around the country's vast oil wealth. But beyond such help, he said, the Iraqis were not interested.

"We want America to help us become a wealthy country," Mr. Mahdi said, and the crowd that gathered around him nodded assent. "There is no reason why we should not have the same standard of living as the rest of the gulf states."

As Mr. Mahdi spoke, Marine troop carriers in the next field began leaving for an operation to clear a neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. Indeed, the marines seem to be preparing for a final push into the city center, possibly linking up with the Army, which has been battling in from the west. The plans are raising concerns here of large numbers of civilian casualties, which could undermine Iraqi support for the American action against Mr. Hussein's rule.

Here, the marines seemed cognizant that they need to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible, if only to maintain the support of people like those in Amin.

"We are going to be slow and methodical," Lt. Col. Pete Owen said today. "If you are not, then things can get messy. There aren't that many bad guys left. We have to be careful we don't kill civilians when we are going after the bad guys."

After a long conversation with several Iraqis in Amin, one of the men brought out a platter of tea in glasses to share with a group of Western journalists.

As the tea was being passed around, another man, Salem Ali, walked up, telling a story nearly identical to Mr. Neama's. He, too, had been picked up today by Mr. Hussein's thugs, he said, and blindfolded, beaten and burned. He unbuttoned his shirt and showed what appeared to be a cigarette burn in the middle of his chest.

Asked to express his views, though, Mr. Ali declined. Even with American troops inside Baghdad, he said he was still not safe.

"Even if the Americans win, for two years, we will be fearing Saddam," he said.

Sempers,

Roger