Yurt
02-24-2007, 10:04 PM
Iraqi kids play make-believe war games
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Toting menacing looking toy guns, young boys swarm around an abandoned car, chanting battle cries of a Shiite militia and pointing their play weapons at the "terrorist" in the driver's seat. Outnumbered, the boy playing a would-be suicide bomber surrenders.
On Baghdad's dusty streets, Iraqi children are playing make-believe war games inspired by the Shiite-Sunni conflict, a development that shows the depth of the city's rapid and violent break-up along sectarian lines.
Some adults try to discourage such games, fearing they only contribute to sectarian hatred. Others believe there is little they can do to stop it — given the horror that children in Baghdad experience nearly every day.
"Playing such games is normal," said Rabab Qassim, a school teacher and mother of three from Hurriyah, where Shiite militiamen drove out hundreds of Sunni families last year. "It has become part of the kids' lives. It is not a figment of their imagination. It is in front of them everywhere and they live it every day."
Iraq's children have not escaped the ravages of nearly four years of war and sectarian strife, which escalated during the past year. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of them have been killed or wounded in the violence.
Images of parents weeping over the dead or mangled bodies of their children define the brutality of the conflict.
"You coward! I will kill you," shouted 6-year-old Haidar Faraj, who played a Shiite militiaman from the Shiite Mahdi Army militia on a recent afternoon in Hurriyah. His younger brother Abbas was the Sunni "terrorist."
Abu Ali, 40, who sells toys in Baghdad's Shorja market, said most of the children who visit his store are looking for the "biggest and most harmful toy guns."
"About 95 percent of the toys I sell are guns," said Abu Ali, who refused to give his full name for security reasons.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_sectarian_games
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Toting menacing looking toy guns, young boys swarm around an abandoned car, chanting battle cries of a Shiite militia and pointing their play weapons at the "terrorist" in the driver's seat. Outnumbered, the boy playing a would-be suicide bomber surrenders.
On Baghdad's dusty streets, Iraqi children are playing make-believe war games inspired by the Shiite-Sunni conflict, a development that shows the depth of the city's rapid and violent break-up along sectarian lines.
Some adults try to discourage such games, fearing they only contribute to sectarian hatred. Others believe there is little they can do to stop it — given the horror that children in Baghdad experience nearly every day.
"Playing such games is normal," said Rabab Qassim, a school teacher and mother of three from Hurriyah, where Shiite militiamen drove out hundreds of Sunni families last year. "It has become part of the kids' lives. It is not a figment of their imagination. It is in front of them everywhere and they live it every day."
Iraq's children have not escaped the ravages of nearly four years of war and sectarian strife, which escalated during the past year. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of them have been killed or wounded in the violence.
Images of parents weeping over the dead or mangled bodies of their children define the brutality of the conflict.
"You coward! I will kill you," shouted 6-year-old Haidar Faraj, who played a Shiite militiaman from the Shiite Mahdi Army militia on a recent afternoon in Hurriyah. His younger brother Abbas was the Sunni "terrorist."
Abu Ali, 40, who sells toys in Baghdad's Shorja market, said most of the children who visit his store are looking for the "biggest and most harmful toy guns."
"About 95 percent of the toys I sell are guns," said Abu Ali, who refused to give his full name for security reasons.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070224/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_sectarian_games