Sinister signs in Iraqi fishermen's tales

Fishermen try their luck in the Tigris. But their catch is more likely to be dead bodies these days than fish. Picture / Reuters

BAGHDAD - Squinting into the morning sun, Abu Dawood casts his net into the brown waters of the Tigris.

Since he was a child, he has been fishing Baghdad's great river for carp, used to prepare mazgouf, a staple of Iraqi cuisine for centuries.

But these days his nets often haul in a more sinister catch - human bodies - apparent victims of sectarian violence wracking the country and pushing it toward civil war.

"Some days I see up to five bodies. We drag them to the bank and call the police," the 61-year-old fisherman said as his boat floated gently on the stream after dawn.

Dawood has long seen bodies floating in the Tigris, which flows through the heart of Baghdad. The difference recently is the way they have died. "Now we see bodies that are blindfolded and others that are handcuffed. The other day, I found [a man's body with] gunshots to his head and back."

Suicides, murders and accidents have always produced bodies for the river. But in recent months, the number of victims of torture and execution-style killings has risen, the fishermen say, evidence of sectarian death squads now active in Iraq.

Iraqi leaders have been trying to play down the extent of violence since an eruption of bloodshed in the past two weeks. The fishermen's tales and other anecdotal evidence add to suggestions that the death toll may well be higher than officially recorded in a country where statistics are erratic.

Fellow fisherman Abu Shakir recalls rowing out to work in the early morning mist only to bump into a floating, bloated body. "There are a lot of bodies around, especially when security deteriorates. Dumping them in the river is a very easy way to get rid of them. No one sees them. No one asks: 'Who did this?"'

Shakir and Dawood mused on the old days when there were plenty of fish in the Tigris, and fewer bodies. These days, it might take them hours to catch a solitary carp.

Chemicals and other pollutants have turned the river into a sewer. Most edible carp are now farmed in artificial lakes. The dozens of restaurants that served mazgouf to crowds on the river banks in Baghdad now lie empty because of violence.

Casting his net near one of Saddam Hussein's old palaces in central Baghdad, Dawood spoke movingly about being a fisherman, a trade he said he learned from his father and grandfather. From his old wooden boat, he had seen British imperialists, Arab puppet kings, military putchists and Saddam rule Baghdad.

"I saw the looters rampaging through Baghdad from my boat when the Americans entered the city. I barely catch fish now. But I am a fisherman. It is an honest way to make a living and support a family."

- REUTERS