Military

DATE=12/25/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BAGHDAD/CHRISTMAS (LONG ONLY)

NUMBER=2-311212

BYLINE=CHALLISS MCDONOUGH

DATELINE=BAGHDAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: It was a tense Christmas Day in Baghdad. For many American soldiers it was just another workday, amid an upsurge of insurgent attacks. Meanwhile, most Iraqi Christians celebrated the holiday quietly, subdued by fears of violence directed at them. V-O-A Correspondent Challiss McDonough reports from the Iraqi capital.

TEXT: On Christmas Day in Baghdad, Iraqi Christians tried hard to pretend it was a normal holiday. But it was anything but normal.

Families gathered in small groups at home, rather than having big holiday parties as they have in years past. Some church pews were emptier than usual.

At the home of sisters Iman and Diane Toom, a lopsided Christmas tree stands in a corner, leaning at a strange angle. It looks dried-out and faded, despite the brightly colored glass balls dangling from its branches.

Suddenly, the tree and the rest of the room spring to life. The electricity has just come back on after a two-hour blackout.

/// NAT SOUND, LAUGHTER AND TALKING ///

Diane Toom laughs along with her sister and nephew. It is impossible! she says. Suddenly the colored Christmas tree lights are blinking again, and the room looks much more cheerful.

By their standards, Diane and Iman Toom were having a very modest holiday celebration. They feel they simply do not have much to celebrate. But they persist with tradition, offering a visitor slices of white-frosted Christmas cake and tiny pistachio pastries.

As everyone sips cups of strong Turkish coffee, the conversation turns, naturally, to politics, and to life in Iraq today.

/// DIANE ACT IN ARABIC, ESTABLISH AND FADE ///

Holding the tray of Christmas cake, Diane Toom says six months after the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein had already rebuilt everything that was damaged. She says the electricity and the water system were both working. Like many Iraqis, she complains that now, eight months after the Americans came, many things are not working. She is not impressed by coalition explanations about old, fragile equipment combined with sabotage attacks.

The animated conversation veers from power cuts to gasoline shortages, from human rights to security, from religion to Iraqi politics. There is much laughter and quite a bit of shouting. After several raucous hours, there is finally a pause.

Well, a visitor says, Merry Christmas, then.

That comment elicits more laughter, because many Iraqi Christians do not feel this Christmas season has been particularly merry.

The archbishop of Iraq's Armenian Catholic community, Monsignor Antoine Atamiya, says far fewer people than usual turned out for the main Christmas Day service.

/// ATAMIYA ACT IN ARABIC, ESTABLISH AND FADE ///

He says many people are afraid of coming to church because they fear someone might harm them.

Some Iraqi Christian churches had security guards posted outside, searching worshippers as they entered for Christmas Day services. This is a symptom of the tension in Iraq today, where everyone is afraid of terrorist bombings. The archbishop says Christians are not really feeling any differently than other Iraqis.

The Christmas holiday was also not particularly joyful for U-S troops in Iraq, for much the same reasons.

The U-S military had been predicting that insurgents would launch a sort of Christmas offensive, and a series of rocket and mortar attacks did rock central Baghdad early in the day.

Several mortar shells landed in the so-called Green Zone, headquarters of the Coalition Provisional Authority. The Sheraton Hotel was targetted by mortars in two attacks, first Wednesday night and then again early Thursday.

On duty outside the hotel after one of the attacks, American Private Michael Williams from the First Armored Division said his plans for the holiday included nothing more than guard duty. As he spoke, two Kiowa Warrior surveillance helicopters buzzed overhead, nearly drowning out his words.

/// WILLIAMS ACT ///

I think Christmas and New Year is just another day closer to getting out of here and being able to see our family. No, we're not going to be doing anything except pulling guard (duty), that's about as special as it gets.

/// END ACT ///

The U-S military did provide special Christmas meals and religious services for the soldiers, but some had to find time for that in between attacks on suspected insurgent bases in and around Baghdad.

But for many, their minds are not on how to spend their time here, but rather on when they will be able to leave. Private Williams and the rest of his unit are getting ready to rotate out of Iraq in the next few months, to be replaced by other U-S forces. But they still have to get through New Year's Eve next week, and he fears that could be even more tense than Christmas was. (signed)

NEB/CEM/AWP/FC