A loud bang and sirens are the alarm clock this morning. Actually it's a good start to the day, for me anyway: Baghdad might be safer than it was until recently, but the explosion reminds you that some traditions aren't so easily lost. There are also various bangs later in the day, but they're far away and could be anything.
What's more, as a Western journalist it's better to watch out for a greater danger: kidnapping. And for a moment I thought it was going to happen today.
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Pulled over
But then it happened. An ordinary car overtakes us at high speed and pulls up in front of us. Two men, they look Iraqi, jump out, with their hands by their belts, the place so many Iraqis carry a gun. I just have time to think, 'So that's how easy kidnapping is,' when the smallest of them says in good English, "Why are you filming here? It's really not possible." I explain I'm from the Dutch radio, but also make television.
Just as I'm about to say it's for the Dutch programme "OneToday", they race off, leaving us stunned. "They might have introduced themselves," Ammar sighs, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
Pistol in his mouth
As we drive home, Ammar tells me he's already been kidnapped once. Four or five men broke into the house at night, looking for money, and found only Ammar. They blindfolded him, threw him in the boot of the car and held him for a week. They kept threatening to kill him, with a pistol in his mouth, if his family didn't pay up a large sum.
In the end it was 20,000 US dollars, which a cousin got from somewhere. "They put me back on the street with my blindfold still on. A voice behind me said I was to wait a minute before I took it off. Then I was to walk straight ahead without looking round. That's how I got home."
"Iraq is our home"
After this incident the family left for Syria, but they recently returned to Iraq. Because it's safer now. But also because they felt completely unwelcome in Syria. They were treated like second class citizens.
Ammar's mother beams when I ask her whether it wouldn't have been wiser to stay in Syria. "No, Iraq is our home." And Ammar adds, "Whatever happens, we'll never leave here again. It's still the place to be." And despite all the trouble, I can see what he means. Iraq's the place to be. At least, as long as I make it through my stay without getting a blindfold over my eyes.
* RNW translation (mb)
Tags: Baghdad, beheaded, blogging, contractors, Hans Jaap Melissen, Iraq, kidnapping, Saddam Hussein, surge, weblog