Death descends on frightened pilgrims
China Daily  Updated: 2005-09-02 05:38

It was a shocking scene, even for a war-torn nation used to terrible suffering.

Nearly 1,000 people were killed and hundreds injured on Wednesday when rumours of a suicide bomber sparked a wild stampede in a procession of Shi'ite pilgrims as they crossed a bridge in northern Baghdad. Most of the dead were women and children.

We convey our deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims and the people of Iraq.

The tragedy was the deadliest in Iraq, in terms of greatest one-day loss of life, since the March 2003 US-led invasion.

There is so far no evidence that Sunni insurgents were directly responsible for spreading the rumour.

Police found no explosives on the bridge.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he was not aware of any evidence the stampede was caused by a suicide bombing.

Nor is there any evidence the tragedy was the direct result of terrorist activity.

The horrific incident appeared largely to have been caused by poor crowd control and, in particular, the climate of fear and panic in Iraq after years of bullets, bombings and bloodshed.

Last March suicide attackers struck worshipers at the Imam Kadhim shrine and a holy site in Karbala, killing at least 181.

After repeated attacks against large religious gatherings, the ever-present fear of suicide bombers was etched into the minds of the crowd. An hour before the stampede, fear had begun spreading among the pilgrims after insurgents fired rockets and mortars near the Shi'ite shrine they were heading for, killing at least seven people.

The disaster came amid high sectarian tensions ahead of a referendum on a new constitution, objected to by the Sunnis, for the post-Saddam Hussein era.

The bridge where the stampede took place was bound to become a dangerous bottleneck. It is the only way to get from eastern Baghdad to the shrine without even a long detour and is on an especially sensitive fault line - it links a Sunni area that has long been a stronghold of support for Saddam Hussein and insurgency that followed his removal.

But it may sound harsh to lay any blame on those in the crowd. Nobody should be faulted for simply being there.

The government and the US-trained security forces should do the best they can to assuage the pain the disaster has inflicted upon many unfortunate families.

The authorities have an obligation to begin an honest investigation to determine how failures multiplied the number of casualties.

Why were the processions not organized? Had there been proper precautions, such as better securing of the roads leading to the shrine and controlling the human flow over the bridge, the scenario might have been quite different.

Iraq is still in chaos following the transfer of limited sovereignty to its interim government in June 2003. The spiralling violence in the war-hardened country shows no sign of abating.

Under these circumstances there is no guarantee the tragedy will not be repeated.

(China Daily 09/02/2005 page4)

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