Safety concerns and lack of cash curb Eid festivities

Although residents of the southern Iraqi city of Basra feel happy to celebrate their first feast of the festival of Eid al-Fitr, without the toppled leader, Saddam Hussein, for the first time in 35 years, apprehensions over security and the general shortage of money have led to muted festivities. "I prefer to stay at home with my family this year," a shopkeeper told IRIN, the day before the festivities. He pointed out that the parks had seen a lot of destruction lately and were now meeting points for gangs. Many nervous Basra residents feel the same. Public places remain unsafe: over the past two weeks, Iraqis have alerted British forces to enable them to destroy about some six landmines, half of them laid in the busy Al-Jaza'ir area near the main road leading to the city's biggest hospital. "We are expecting more than just festivities in the feast," Hibbah Haydar, a student who was buying clothes, told IRIN in Basra. "I'll only go out with my family to visit others during the day, and if things are quiet, we'll go out to the busiest streets in town only," she said. "Saddam Hussein took two big entertainment centres in Basra, namely Al-Ummah Park and Sindbad Island and turned them into military places. Now it will take us some time to change them back," said a man who was buying special feast cookies at the popular and most crowded shopping street in Basra, Al-Jaza'ir. He added that although people do not necessarily have to get the main food items before the feast, he was not buying new clothes for his children as tradition demands because he could not afford to do so. "For people who work in government institutions, things became better as they take their normal salaries, but for people who work on their own, like me, things are still expensive," he said. Although the markets are full of goods as the Coalition forces had left the borders open to the unrestricted entry of imports, many people seemed to be buying less during the festivities than before, shopkeepers said. "Everything is expensive here," Anwar Makki, a teacher, told IRIN. "Teachers are worst off and have not received their salaries," she explained. Anwar, who was walking with her two daughters, said she would only buy them essential items. For Anwar and others like her, the second-hand clothes market was the best solution. "It's a bit like what we used to do during the sanctions years," she said. Security was another major reason keeping people off their Id shopping. "I'm going to do my shopping quickly, because we are worried while walking. We feel that there could be an explosion any time," she added.