pain and poverty

With Donkeys for Transport, All Is Well

Inter Press Service
By Ali al-Fadhily*

FALLUJAH, Sep 5 (IPS) - A brave new attempt is under way to project that all is well now with Fallujah. Residents know better -- or worse.

Former Iraqi minister of state for foreign affairs Rafi al-Issawi visited Fallujah, 60 km west of Baghdad, Aug. 22. Issawi, who resigned Aug. 1 when the Sunni Iraqi Accord Front withdrew from the government, visited the city with other members of the Sunni Accordance Bloc, al-Tawafuq.

The group toured the city and met with senior officials and community leaders in a show of conversion of the city from the most violent to the most peaceful in Iraq.