Iraqi Uses Web to Chronicle a City Under the Bombs
In March of 1994, I landed in Pristina, the capital of then-Serbian-controlled Kosovo. Communications were so primitive that I was unable to receive direct mail, and I could not make an international call nor receive a fax for the first three weeks I was there. Getting an Internet connection would have been an unheard of and unimaginable luxury.
Now, nine years later in Baghdad, a city under attack, an Iraqi is keeping the world informed of events in his city through his weblog. The times, they are indeed a-changing....
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A mysterious Iraqi who calls himself Salam Pax, writing a Web log from the heart of Baghdad, has developed a large Internet following with his wry accounts of daily life in a city under U.S. bombardment.
Salam Pax, a pseudonym crafted from the Arabic and Latin words for peace, came back on line on Monday after a two-day break because of interruptions in Internet access....
He has spoken against the invasion but clearly has no great love for Iraq's Baathist leaders.
"Freaks. Hurling abuse at the world is the only thing left for them to do," he said last week after media appearances by Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf and Interior Minister Mahmoud Diyab al-Ahmed.
But he does not like seeing his city bombed either. "The only thing I could think of was 'why does this have to happen to Baghdad'. As one of the buildings I really love went up in a huge explosion I was close to tears," he wrote on Saturday.
Salam and his family have been out on reconnaissance missions around the city to inspect the damage and they report the bombing has been accurate but dangerous to civilians.
"Today before noon I went out with my cousin to take a look at the city. Two things. 1) the attacks are precise. 2) they are attacking targets which are just too close to civilian areas in Baghdad," he wrote on Sunday.
On Saturday he reported a rare eyewitness account of Iraqi policemen setting fire to the oil in trenches dug around Baghdad, apparently to confuse the guidance system of bombs.
"My cousine (sic) came and told me he saw police cars standing by one and setting it on fire. Now you can see the columns of smoke all over the city," he wrote.
Salam Pax's site is down this morning, which given that he is living in the center of a war zone is not surprising. He has been able to provide a fascinating view into what life in wartime is like in Baghdad. I wonder how many of us would be able to hold up well enough to report on the destruction inflicted on our hometown?
