Work on Baghdad wall continues despite premier's opposition
dpa German Press Agency
Published: Monday April 23, 2007
Baghdad- The construction of a three-mile wall around a Sunni neighbourhood in Baghdad continued Monday, the military spokesman for the Iraqi government said, despite Premier Nuri al- Maliki's opposition to the plan. Qassem Atta confirmed the US military's plan to form a 3.5-metre- high concrete wall to enclose Adhamiya district, where tit-for-tat sectarian violence is threatening to spiral out of control.
He also insisted that Iraqi citizens had requested that walls be erected between neighbourhoods for security considerations, and so the work on the Adhamiya wall will continue, he told Iraqiya state television.
Atta also said that the defence minister had a "firm opinion" about the walls, namely that they were "temporary."
Atta's statements came only a day after al-Maliki had openly called for the halt of the separation wall, saying he opposed it.
Anger was sparked among citizens and some politicians in Baghdad after local and international news sources circulated the report of the wall that is expected to divide notorious neighbourhoods - and in turn Baghdad itself.
Atta had told the press that building such and similar walls across Baghdad was part of a security plan enacted on February 14 in an effort to quell ongoing violence in the city.
The planned walls are expected to reduce the traffic of armed militants between neighbourhoods. Each wall would have two access points only.
The Adhamiya wall's construction had already begun on April 10.
According to Britain's The Guardian, which blew the whistle on the construction last Saturday, US paratroopers from Camp Taji, some 30 kilometres to the north of Baghdad, transported "stacks of huge (6,300-kilogram) concrete barriers" in trucks into the capital.
"Cranes, protected by tanks, winched them into place. Building has continued every night since," the newspaper report read.
And according to Atta, similar constructions are to follow and are expected to appear in areas like Rasafa and Karakh.
Sunnis are increasingly concentrating to the west of the Tigris in Baghdad, while Shiites flee to the east.
© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency