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Gated communities, with walls, to protect Sunnis in Baghdad
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is planning and building at least 10 gated
communities, ringed by security walls, in Baghdad.
Officials said the U.S. military has already completed walls around some
of the communities as part of the campaign to secure the Iraqi capital. They
said at least 10 Baghdad neighborhoods have been or would become gated
communities in an effort to prevent sectarian violence.
"It is the only way we could do it," Brig. Gen. John Campbell, the
deputy commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, said.
Officials said U.S. and Iraqi troops would conduct a census of each of
the gated communities. They said residents would undergo biometric scanning
and receive badges for entry in an arrangement they said would be temporary.
A U.S. report said the walled neighborhoods were meant to protect Iraqi
Sunnis from Shi'ite death squads. Construction has already begun on one
wall, designed to span five kilometers.
"Gated communities may, therefore, be the only way to ensure relative
physical security to given parts of the city without paralyzing it, or
creating security systems that cannot function," a report by the Center for
Strategic and International Studies said.
Authored by former Pentagon official Anthony Cordesman, the report
identified three of the walled Sunni neighborhoods as Ameriyia, Khadra and
Azamiya. The U.S. military has already begun the wall around Azamiya, a
Sunni area along the eastern bank of the Tigris River.
The report, entitled "Securing Baghdad with Gated Communities," asserted
that building walls around ethnic neighborhoods might be the only way to
reduce sectarian violence. Cordesman cited the U.S. failure to prevent Al
Qaida from sending suicide bombers into Shi'ite neighborhoods of Baghdad,
with a reported population of 7.5 million.
"Baghdad is a vast, sprawling city," the report said. "Securing the
entire city is virtually impossible."
[On Sunday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki ordered a halt to the
wall around Azamiya. The prime minister said he was responding to complaints
from Sunni residents.
"I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop," Al
Maliki said. "There are other methods to protect neighborhoods."]
Cordesman said gated communities would reduce U.S. and Iraqi troop
requirements in the current operation to stabilize Baghdad. He said the U.S.
military continues to fall short of troop levels required to quell the Sunni
insurgency in the Iraqi capital.
"Focusing on security in the most troubled areas still may involve more
manpower than the United States and Iraqi Security Forces can deploy," the
report said. "But is far more practical than trying to both secure the
entire perimeter and then secure the entire inner structure of the city."
Still, the report asserts that the construction of walled neighborhoods
presents serious challenges. He said the walls would divide Baghdad along
sectarian lines, limit access and increase reliance on a corrupt Iraqi
police force.
"Gated areas do, however, consist of an experiment that will take time
to implement, will be a far from perfect answer, and may fail," the report
said. "It is critically dependent on improvements in the effectiveness of
both the Iraqi police and governance, and local support."
Officials said the U.S. military in cooperation with the Iraqi
government has been building a five kilometer wall that would surround the
Sunni community of Azamiya. Under the plan, Azamiya, on the eastern bank of
the Tigris River, would be sealed, with access available through gates
guarded by Iraqi soldiers.
Officials said the concrete wall, construction of which began on April
10, would be four
meters high and protect Azamiya from Shi'ite death squads. They said the
wall would help stabilize Baghdad and reduce sectarian violence.
"Shi'ites are coming in and hitting Sunnis, and Sunnis are retaliating
across the street," Capt. Scott McLearn, of the U.S. 407th Brigade Support
Battalion, said.
The wall was being constructed by U.S. military crews from Taji nearly
every night. Officials said main battle tanks were protecting construction
crews, which have been unloading concrete barriers from flatbed trucks.
Officials said the wall would stem the Sunni flight from Baghdad. They
said hundreds of thousands of Sunnis have fled the Iraqi capital over the
last two
years, with many of their homes taken over by Shi'ites.
Senior commanders have not discussed the wall project. As late as April
18, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said he was unaware
of the project.
"We have no intent to build gated communities in Baghdad," Caldwell
said. "Our goal is to unify Baghdad, not subdivide it into separate
[enclaves]."
But the military said Azamiya as well as three adjacent Shi'ite
communities would receive additional protection. A military statement on
April 20 said the wall would hamper bombings in the area.
"It is on a fault line of Sunni and Shia, and the idea is to curb some
of the self-sustaining violence by controlling who has access to the
neighborhoods," Capt. Marc Sanborn, a brigade engineer for the Second
Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, said.
A leading U.S. analyst said the U.S. military plans to surround at least
two other Sunni communities with barriers. Former Pentagon official Anthony
Cordesman, senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
International Studies, identified the Baghdad neighborhoods as Ameriya and
Khadra.
Copyright © 2007 East West
Services, Inc.
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