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Iraq's Basra now a far cry from its past glory Basra, Iraq | Reuters | 15/01/01

Two major wars, a rebellion and 10 years of economic sanctions have turned Iraq's southern port city of Basra, once a hub of trade and tourism, into a poor, desperate town. The birthplace of Sinbad the Sailor, the hero immortalised in Arab literature, is struggling to provide its inhabitants with basic services and decent living standards despite its vast oil wealth.

Since the Gulf War over Kuwait that erupted on January 17, 1991, its residents have been fighting a daily battle to make ends meet. The vast majority of its estimated two million population depend for survival on government supplies distributed under an oil-for-food deal with the United Nations. It is a far cry from the days when Basra was a regional trade hub and its casinos, palm-dotted parks and mild weather made it a playground for wealthy Gulf Arabs, many of them from Kuwait.

"If it weren't for the monthly rations from the government, most residents would not be able to put food on their tables," Kazem, a government employee, told Reuters. "It is a far cry from the recent past when we were the most well off among Iraq's population." Basra's infrastructure is a shambles. It suffers from chronic power cuts, leaking sewage and water networks, and muddy roads.

Revenues from the oil sales, closely monitored by the United Nations, have enabled the authorities to start modest repair work. Government workers are installing new pipes for the water network and repairs are being made to the electricity grid. The extent of desperation among some of the population is clearly visible at the city's weekly "Friday market" where Iraqis from different walks of life offer the same basic home appliances, clothes and furniture for sale.

On display on the side walks of a main street are used television and radio sets, refrigerators, clothes, light bulbs, children's bicycles and video games. "I am selling the clothes of my grandchildren," Yousef Hussein, 70, said. "We have no money and my family lives on my retirement salary of 150 dinars (eight U.S. cents) a month."

Hussein, who used to work in construction, said he would earn 70 dinars before the 1990-91 crisis when the Iraqi currency was worth more than $3 to the dinar. "No one here can replace the things being sold," Hussein said.

Basra, Iraq's sole outlet to the sea 50 kilometres north of the border with Kuwait and 550 kilometres south of Baghdad, saw its heydays in ancient times under the Abbasid Islamic rule.The Abbasids built the city in the seventh century and in a few decades it became the focal point for Arab sea trade which stretched as far as China. Alongside its fame as a trade hub, Basra became an intellectual centre, renowned for its architecture, mosques and libraries. It produced a number of leading Islamic thinkers and philosophers.

In the 1970s and early 1980s it evolved into a tourist destination with many Kuwaitis crossing the border in search of good times. The city bore the brunt of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war on the shores of its disputed Shatt Al Arab waterway where the rivers Euphrates and Tigris meet before running to the Gulf.Its Al Ma'kal port has been out of service since the start of that war. Ships carrying goods under the UN oil-for-food deal unload at Umm Al Qasr port to the south. Tankers load crude from a separate port, Min Al Bakr.

As a strategic town linking Baghdad to Kuwait, Basra was also a main target for U.S.-led forces which pummelled it with bombs, missiles and artillery from the air, land and sea during the 1991 Gulf War.Shortly after Iraqi troops were forced out of Kuwait at the end of February that year, retreating soldiers began a revolt against President Saddam Hussein once they reached Basra. The soldiers were soon joined by locals and opposition activists. The riots spread to most of the mainly Shi'ite south but within days Saddam's loyalist forces regained control.

Scars of the devastation are still clear with destroyed houses and a strategic bridge bearing testimony to the ferocity of the fighting. Despite several U.S. military strikes and the establishment of a no-fly zone over the south since the 1991 war, Saddam appears to have tightened his grip over the restive area.

A drive from Baghdad to Basra confirms this. The highway is dotted with small military points on both sides and barred at several stages by Iraqi army and police roadblocks. The soldiers appear relaxed and in full control.