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A car in Baghdad after the incident in which Blackwater guards opened fire and nine Iraqis were left dead. nissour square
A car in Baghdad after the incident in which Blackwater guards opened fire and nine Iraqis were left dead. Photograph: ZUMA/REX
A car in Baghdad after the incident in which Blackwater guards opened fire and nine Iraqis were left dead. Photograph: ZUMA/REX

Iraqis react to Blackwater verdict: 'I'm surprised they were convicted at all'

This article is more than 9 years old

Sense of justice served mingles with anger and surprise in Iraqis’ reactions to conviction of guards in Nissour Square incident

For more than seven years, Iraqis had held the Blackwater killings as a symbol of US brutality and immunity for their wrongs during a nearly nine-year occupation of their country.

Yet when justice was finally served in Washington on Thursday, reaction across the country was largely mute. Coverage in the Iraqi press was sparse and residents of Baghdad seemed far more troubled by a perilous future than their dark past.

The scene of the attack, Nissour Square in the west of the capital, where a Blackwater convoy killed 17 people and wounded 20 more in August 2007, was a bustling hub on Friday. Drivers stopped at a traffic light nearby shrugged when asked about the verdicts, which saw three guards convicted of manslaughter and another of first degree murder for opening fire on civilians.

“They should have all been executed,” said one man, before driving off.

“I’m surprised they were convicted at all, said another, Haithem al-Samarie. “These sorts of attacks have happened many times since, mostly caused by militias. And they will never be prosecuted.

A Baghdad-based lawyer, Ahmed al-Azzawi, said the verdicts were an important milestone for the many victims that had lost family members during the occupation.

“Finally the law has taken its course. I know it took a long time but at least in the end, justice took place,” he said. “In Iraq, we can’t take any American citizens to court because they have immunity but with the pressure of the media (local and foreign) and with the persistence of the victims’ families, we managed to reach that result.

“People in Baghdad are divided to two groups, the realistic group which sees justice in bringing the killers to court and reaching the verdict, while the other group is more emotional. Many are victims of the American contractors or army and they believe that it took too long and that the verdict isn’t fair enough.

“This verdict give us a sense of partial equality. It tells us that we aren’t different as human beings. But it took long to establish that fact.”

The Blackwater killings came at a time when security contractors across Iraq had developed an uncompromising, bullying reputation. They were particularly disliked for firing warning shots at any cars that neared their convoys on Baghdad’s choked streets and highways.

The convoys were often targeted by car bombs and any move through the country during the darkest years of the insurgency and civil war were dangerous for the conspicuous convoys and their heavily armed gunmen.

However the apparent impunity under which the companies operated was deeply resented by many in Iraq. The Nissour Square killings galvanised political leaders and citizens into viewing the contractors as an often more uncompromising extension of the occupying military.

Iraq’s leadership offered no reaction to the verdict, which to many contacted by the Guardian had been eclipsed by a relentless wave of death and deterioration over the past two years.

“It’s good that those criminals are going to jail,” said Umm Marwan, from the inner eastern suburb of Baladiyat. “But that atrocity is so long ago. The events of the more recent past have made people forget. We are all trying to survive now.”

Additional reporting by Mais al-Bayaa

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