Iraqis Get Ready for the Worst
People stock up on food and gasoline before an
election-related
national lockdown takes effect.
By Edmund Sanders
Times Staff Writer
January 28, 2005
BAGHDAD — As fast as butcher Shakir Salman can hang the skinned,
headless sheep from hooks in his shop, customers scurry away with
armloads of fresh meat.
Homemaker Manar Shumari is frantically stocking up on diapers for
her 2-year-old. "I bought some yesterday, but I came again today, just
to be sure," she said.
At Medical City in Baghdad, doctors are dragging mattresses into
their offices and bunking in vacant nursing-home beds, preparing for
the possibility of widespread bloodshed.
Amid excitement and fear over Sunday's election, Iraqis are in a
mad rush to prepare for an unprecedented three-day national lockdown.
With insurgents vowing to disrupt the balloting and kill voters, U.S.
and Iraqi security forces have imposed a lengthy set of emergency
security measures.
Starting Saturday, borders will be sealed and the airport will be
shut down. Government offices and most companies will take a three-day
holiday. Nightly curfews begin at 7 p.m. and last until 6 a.m.
In addition, cars will be banned from roads unless occupants have
special election badges, except in cases of medical emergency.
Traffic in Baghdad, a city that loves cars as much as Los Angeles
does, appeared Thursday to be down by about half. Road closures and
police checkpoints made navigating the capital difficult. Many drivers
said they wouldn't risk taking to the roads, noting that insurgents had
threatened to attack anyone attempting to vote or assisting in the
election.
"I'm staying home," said Ali Mohammed, 40, a government employee
who was filling plastic jerrycans with black-market gas. "We don't know
what's going to happen."
Though he won't be driving, but Mohammed said he needed the fuel
to run a generator to compensate for chronic electricity failures.
Demand for gas, food and emergency supplies has spurred a price
surge. Black-market prices for gasoline doubled from $1.30 a gallon
last week to $2.70 a gallon Thursday. Potatoes that sold for 22 cents
for a little more than two pounds on Monday sold for 55 cents Thursday.
Long lines snaked out of bakeries selling samoun, a popular
bread. Grocery stores were selling out of water, eggs, canned food and
rice.
Iraqis, who over the last two decades have grown accustomed to
hunkering down, are preparing for the worst.
"Many people are scared," said Ahmed Abdullah, 36, a taxi driver
who charged double his usual fare this week. "But so what? For one
reason or another, we've been scared all our lives."
Similar stockpiling occurred shortly before the U.S.-led invasion
in March 2003. But widespread road closures are rare in Iraq, the last
one occurring in 1997 during a one-day national census.
Anticipating a rush this week, Salman, who has owned his Baghdad
butcher shop since 1962, packed his freezer with lamb chops, steaks and
whole chickens. For those customers seeking fresh meat over the
weekend, there's a fluffy, white specimen tethered to a post outside
his shop, ready for slaughter.
"I'm going to try to open, but I don't know if many people will be out
shopping," Salman said.
Preparing Iraq's hospitals and healthcare facilities poses a
unique challenge. If violence is stepped up during the election, the
need for doctors and nurses will soar. But the logistics of
transporting staff to work amid the security lockdown will be
difficult, officials said.
Health Ministry officials ordered the nation's hospitals on
emergency alert beginning Saturday and told them to prepare by
stockpiling oxygen, blood, water, gasoline and cash.
"We're prepared for all eventualities," said Dr. Amer Mukh- tar,
general director of Medical City, a giant complex of teaching hospitals
and medical facilities in Baghdad. "God knows what will happen."
More than 500 elective surgeries were postponed to keep hospital
beds free. Nearly 1,000 employees, from surgeons to blood bank workers,
will camp out at the facility rather than commute each day. As medical
personnel, they are exempted from the travel ban, but most prefer to
sleep at work for the three-day lockdown.
Hospital officials had to scramble to find beds and supplies for
employees. A nearby restaurant is standing by to help prepare 3,000
extra meals a day, Mukhtar said.
Some doctors are eager to pitch in.
"I believe it's our duty as doctors to be there when our patients
need us," said Dr. Mustafa Rida, a Baghdad dentist. He was told his
skills probably wouldn't be needed, but he lives near a public heath
center and is planning to walk there to assist in any way he can.
Other doctors plan on staying home, saying it's too risky to be outside.
"I won't go to the hospital during the election," said Dr. Talib
Mustafa Jawad, a plastic surgeon at Al Kindi Hospital. Jawad said he
wanted to vote but then intended to stay home to take care of his
mother.
"The risk is too big, especially during elections when there will
be no security," he said. "I'll stay home. I don't care what they do to
me."
Even after the balloting is over, medical professionals predict,
the national lockdown could have a lasting health effect on Iraq: an
election-related baby boom in about nine months.
With citizens banned from the roads, shut in by the curfew and
with spotty electricity making it difficult to watch TV or read, Iraqis
may search for other methods to occupy their time.
"It will be interesting to see," Mukhtar said with a smile.
*
Times special correspondent Caesar Ahmed contributed
to this report.
