Neighborhood Revival Difficult in Baghdad

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In Iraq, Dora was the first of several violent Baghdad neighborhoods to be covered by a new security plan. U.S. and Iraq forces are trying to create walled-in sanctuaries where economic development can proceed in a safe environment.

Dora is a mixed neighborhood and has been one of Baghdad's deadliest. It's been hit by a combination of sectarian violence, crime, and Sunni insurgents who want to push the U.S. out.

Three weeks after new security measures were put in place, Dora is safer. As NPR's Anne Garrels reports, it's proving harder to kick start the economy there.

ANNE GARRELS: As he stands in the middle of Dora, surrounded by Humvees and a protection detail, General David Halverson of the 4th Infantry Division faces the same issues his predecessors here wrestled with: security and a crumbling infrastructure. And if anything, the situation is worse than it was when American troops arrived here over three years ago.

The marketplace is scorched from repeated gunfights and car bombs. Many shops are shuttered because of sectarian violence. Halverson is trying to get them up and running again.

General DAVID HALVERSON (U.S. Army): And so what you see now is Iraqi security forces, the (unintelligible) National Police, providing security for their people. And now we've gone through this deliberate approach of getting this market thing going here, because this market is a huge essential service that they need.

GARRELS: With reinforced U.S. and Iraqi patrols in place, Halverson is trying to show the government it's safe to come back in and fix the mess. He can't wait for them to move first, though.

Part of the U.S. strategy is to show neighborhood residents immediate gains. The thinking being the more people see improvements, the more likely they are to come forward with tips and support the security measures.

Gen. HALVERSON: I think the hardest thing from all this is to ensure they can maintain the momentum.

GARRELS: Leading by example, his team has hired contractors to move garbage to a landfill that has long been considered a death trap.

Gen. HALVERSON: We have to show them that it is not dangerous.

GARRELS: He's brought in a contractor to fix a huge 25'x 25' hole where the sewage system has collapsed. But at the site, no one is at work. His engineer, Lt. Colonel Joe Kindara(ph), says the contractor fled ten days ago after one of his workers was killed.

Lt. Col. JOE KINDARA (U.S. Army): There was an individual that was working one of these excavators that got pulled off, and two guys came into the area and shot him.

GARRELS: This was after the joint U.S.-Iraqi security sweep.

Residents say the situation is better. Violence is down. After 126 bodies surfaced in Dora in July, only 18 turned up in August. But fear hasn't gone away, and Col. Kindara says it's easily stoked by what he calls the bad guys.

For a while he had kids picking up garbage for five dollars a day. But rumors spread one of the kids had been shot for helping the Americans. It wasn't true, but the kids disappeared.

Lt. Col. KINDARA: You can't tell me that the insurgency doesn't know that's how word of mouth is. They are so much further ahead of us on this information operations campaign because they know that rumors spread like wildfire.

Unidentified Man: Now, Joe, let's get the sucker here to suck up (unintelligible).

Lt. Col. KINDARA: Well, sir, until we turn off that water, it won't help.

GARRELS: Around the corner, there is another sinkhole. Raw sewage floods the nearby houses, and once again the contractor hired to fix it is nowhere to be seen.

(Soundbite of machinery)

GARRELS: At the municipality parking lot, 22 garbage trucks provided by the U.S. and other donors sit idle because drivers and maintenance workers haven't turned up.

Pointing to an electricity transformer, Col. Kindara says fixing the mess here is much harder than blowing it up.

Lt. Col. KINDARA: If you're going to cause a disruption to the power network here, all you really have to do is shoot a hole in a transformer and then they don't get power cause all the oil leaks out and eventually the transformer blows, and then you've got to get a new transformer. And it's really easy to do with just a single bullet.

GARRELS: On the street, people come up and complain about the Iraqi police, claiming the Shiite-dominated force intimidates people and shoots at random. There was a major shake-up in the police force in the area after officers were accused of taking part in kidnappings and killings. But many of the new recruits have received little or no training. Lt. Col. Jeff Peterson(ph), commander of a Stryker Brigade working here, acknowledges people still don't trust the police.

Lt. Col. JEFF PETERSON (U.S. Army): That's the perception that's out there. All we can do is continue to work with the national police and make them a more professional force. We have partnerships all the way down to the lowest level. The perception is out there and it will take a while to overcome.

Unidentified Man #2: (Unintelligible)

(Soundbite of crowd noise)

GARRELS: Gen. Halverson moves on to visit a clinic which the U.S. built but which has not yet been commissioned by the Iraqi Health Ministry.

Gen. HALVERSON: I wanted to come out here just to see if this thing's ready to go, so when I go back I can say I physically stood here. So if I have to go back to your office and get your signature, let's do it because we can't wait for the bureaucracy.

GARRELS: And he will now meet with local authorities to describe his overall findings, urging them to get out of their offices and get more involved. His frustration is evident.

Gen. HALVERSON: They've got to deal with a lot of these issues, you know. I mean the government does, you know. They have to want it more than us. And the government's going to have to want it and they're going to have to show their commitment.

GARRELS: Anne Garrels, NPR News, Baghdad.

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