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Banks looted by professional gangs { April 16 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,937631,00.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,937631,00.html
Looted banks plunge savers into poverty
Jonathan Steele in Baghdad
Wednesday April 16, 2003
The Guardian
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their savings as a result of looting which has left the country without a single functioning bank. Millions face poverty in the absence of a government which can resume paying salaries to teachers, doctors, civil servants and factory workers.
While angry Iraqis press the United States to restore water and electricity supplies and provide security for their homes, many are beginning to realise that the country's problems go far beyond the basic need to repair the civic infrastructure.
"We just don't know what will happen to our economy. Roughly half the population in Saddam Hussein's time was paid by the government," said Farouk Majid Ishak, who runs a company making pumps for water and sewage.
He had the foresight to remove his money from the bank before the war began, but many did not.
Salam Hikmet, who owns a liquor store in the middle-class suburb of Mesbah, said: "I had 7m dinars in the Rafidain bank and have lost it all."
He had carefully removed all his crates of wine, beer and whisky to his home before the war began, fearing that the shop might be hit by bombs or looted in the resulting chaos. "I never expected the banks themselves to be looted," he said.
At the prewar rate of exchange of 2,000 dinars to the US dollar, his loss amounts to $3,500 (£2,225), but this is in a country where an average government employee earns $20 a month.
The chances of compensation are close to zero. Although Mr Hikmet has receipts, no bank still has records to prove his claim, let alone the cash to return the deposits.
While many government offices were stripped by ordinary people seizing chairs, curtains, and electrical fittings, Baghdad's banks were looted by professional gangs.
They placed armed men at the front to prevent rivals getting into the buildings while they broke into vaults through steel doors with oxyacetylene cutters and forced safes open.
Some Iraqis believe Kuwaiti gangs were among the thieves - or what Iraqis call "Ali Babas".
"I heard them talk. Their accent is different. The Kuwaitis are very angry because the same thing happened to them when Iraq occupied Kuwait in 1990," said Naji Mohammed, who has a small electrical shop.
Iraq's central bank was also looted by professionals. Several hundred poorly dressed and hostile-looking men hung around the broken entrance yesterday, in the futile hope that something was left to steal. Two American armoured vehicles made atoken effort to hold them back.
"See those people. They're already edging across the road," the US commander said. "We've been ordered back to base. As soon as we go, they'll be in there."
He was right. As the US vehicles rumbled off, the mob surged into the building.
No one knows how many Iraqis have lost their savings. but hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis were too poor in a sanctions-damaged economy to have savings at all. They survived on cash and hid any extra at home.
"We want the United States to give us security and a livelihood, and only then will we thank them," said Ali Mohsin, who sells luggage and travel bags in a small shop. He lost 9m dinars in a looted bank.
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