Iraqis torn between fear and uncertainty

BBC

Three years ago, as British troops swept into Basra, in southern Iraq, the British were welcomed as liberators.
A group of Iraqis crowded around us - British journalists - to praise Tony Blair and broke into spontaneous applause.

The south had been ruthlessly oppressed and thousands of people had been killed by Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party apparatus after the attempted Shia uprising in 1991.

Today, the atmosphere on the streets has changed. I sensed that the majority of people are torn - they want the British to leave after three years of occupation but they are also fearful of what might happen when they go.

On 22 February, the day that sectarian violence swept the country following the attack by Sunni insurgents on the Shia Golden Shrine at Samarra, the Panorama team was trapped in the most exposed British base in Basra - right in the heart of the city.

We had filmed with this unit, Zulu Company of the Royal Fusiliers, three years before when they took over a section of the city and supplied desperate people with water.

Now we could only watch as massive demonstrations, called by Shia religious leaders, began forming outside the walls of the base.


Major John Stott was under orders to keep a low profile but his men started preparing their riot gear. The unspoken fear was what might happen if the thousands of shocked and angry people outside turned on the British base.

In the event, the demonstration passed off peacefully if noisily - the banners railed against the Americans and Israelis but not the British. .......