IRAQ

Independent: Powerless Iraqis rail against ignorant, air-conditioned US occupation force
As temperatures reached a scorching 45C (113F) in Baghdad last week
people in al-Thawra, a sprawling working-class slum, unearthed hidden rifles
and threatened to kill the manager of the local electrical sub-station if
he did not resume power supplies. "Some had guns and others threw stones
at us, but I told them this was just a sub- station and we aren't
receiving any electricity," said Bassim Arman, the harassed-looking manager. "Now
I have to close down anyway, because employees are too frightened to come
to work."

Electricity is vital to life in the Iraqi capital where the temperature
can soar as high as 60C (140F) at the height of summer. Without it there is
no air-conditioning, no refrigerators to prevent food rotting and no light
in a city terrified by looters. The failure to get the electrical system
working has become a symbol for Iraqis in the capital of the general
failure of the American occupation to provide living conditions even at
the miserable level they enjoyed under Saddam Hussein.