New catch in Baghdad as fisherman haul out bodies

Baghdad, Mar 8: 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 Abu Dawood's nets often haul in a much 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 ysterday as his boat floated gently on the stream after dawn.

Abu Dawood has long seen bodies floating in the Tigris, which flows through the heart of Baghdad, a city of seven million people.

The difference in recent months is the way they have died.

''Now we see bodies that are blindfolded and others that are handcuffed,'' Abu Dawood said. ''The other day, I found the body of a man in his 30s. He had gunshots to his head and back.'' Suicides, murders and accidents have always produced bodies for the river, and not just the Tigris but the Euphrates too, which also flows through Iraq to the Gulf in the south.

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, struggling to form a government of national unity, have been trying to play down the extent of violence since an eruption of sectarian bloodshed in the past two weeks.

But 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.

EASY DISPOSAL

Abu Shakir, another veteran of the Tigris fishing boat scene, 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?''' Abu Shakir and Abu 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 across from close to one of Saddam Hussein's old palaces in central Baghdad, Abu Dawood waxed longingly 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,'' he said.

''I barely catch fish now. But I am a fisherman. It is an honest way to make a living and support a family.''

REUTERS