Checkpoints are frequent on the road from Baghdad into the province of

Salahaddin. Five years ago it was very dangerous to go here, with frequent

robberies and bomb attacks by terrorist groups and criminals. But today, it

is better.  

The driver plays a speech by Saddam Hussein, mostly as a curiosity.

Tikrit, in the Sunni-dominated province of Salahaddin, is the former

dictator's hometown and Sunnis here distrusts the Shiite-dominated central government, now in power in Baghdad.

And that the Shiite-dominated parties under Prime Minister alMaliki now are in power, becomes evident at the entrance to Tikrit.

at Uday's house, to guard inside

-Please open the door 

To enter the house that belonged to Saddam's son Uday and where Saddam was hiding in an underground cavern, is not allowed, forbidden by Maliki.

And the gigantic palaces in Tikrit are now controlled by the Iraqi

government. Here curiosity hotels for tourists are planned and the palaces are restored. The 73 palaces were built by Saddam as monuments over himself. His name slate, SH in Arabic, is everywhere.

Every wall is covered with expensive Italian marble and billions of

dollars from Iraq's oil wealth was spent on the buildings while the people suffered under the sanctions. The dictator Saddam ruled with an iron fist, critical voices were mercilessly executed and the Sunni population and especially Saddam's own clan, was favoured, while hundreds of thousands Shiites and Kurds were displaced and killed.

Underdevelopment is evident today throughout the country, especially in the countryside, which looks the same as thirty years ago. Not much has happened since the country became democratic.

Musbah Abdul Karim  (arabic)

-We don't produce anything. We need private investors from other countries for development.

But private investments that can develop Iraq, are hindered by the central government. The mismanagement is seen in alAlam, just outside Tikrit.

Hardly any goods in the shops are produced in Iraq, everything is imported and electricity supply is as bad as it has always been. Foodstuffs melts in the freezers.

Hassan Mohammed man in shop   (arabic)

-I hope that with autonomy it (the electricity) will be good in the future, but if we still belong to the Baghdad government, we can forget about it.

Armed guards keep watch over the municipal office. Inside there is a

meeting. In al Alam, the people want to have more autonomy and independence from the government in Baghdad. The mistrust is partly because the Sunnis are now degraded from power, but mainly because the Shiite-dominated elected governments have not been able to deliver any progress, despite foreign billions of dollars in aid.

After the meeting, municipal council chairman Yasim alJuburi shows  the various projects undertaken by them. The municipality is building a new slaughter-house, but it's not exactly a high-tech project.

Yasim alJuburi, chairman, alAlam municipal council   (arabic)

-During these years, what has Iraq achieved? The answer is nothing. To the contrary, from the country all the educated and experienced people left during the problems 2006-2007.

The new primary school building is built by hand and work progresses

slowly. The municipality receives its budget from the province who in turn gets the money from the government in Baghdad. The state budget is for 90% financed from the oil, tax revenues barely exist. But much of the money disappears.

Yasim alJuburi, chairman, alAlam municipal council   (arabic)

-The citizens are waiting for security, services, jobs and electricity.But there is corruption in most ministeries, as we read in media about shady business deals, selling of chairs (positions) in the authorities, that is the biggest problem in the country. That is not good for us here. This creates chaos and problems in the whole country and no-one trust the government any more.

According to Transparency International, Iraq is one of the world's most corrupt countries, but work to uncover corrupt officials is dangerous, especially if those in power have contacts with militias or criminals. That is something the President of Salahaddin province council has experienced.

Mimaroglou Niyazi, Chairman, Salahaddin Province council      (arabic)

-I personally got attacked thirteen times by bombs, gunshots and sniper fire and my office and house were burnt.

The office of the province was attacked a year ago.

Ahmed   (english)

-Three suicide bombers got from the reception downstairs up here and shot at Mr Niyazi's office and threw a handgrenade and then went up and one suicide bomber blew himself up here and his hair is on the wall and his leg went here.

Al Qaeda groups operate in the area and create instability and hinder

development. But despite the need, Salahaddin has only recieved resources to pay 2000 of the government promise of 11,000 men. So the security forces under control of the province are not sufficient, nor effective.

Mimaroglou Niyazi, Chairman, Salahaddin Province council     (arabic)

-The security forces can work but not as much as we need because they need training and equipment to detect IED:s (improvised explosive devices) We also need money to build up an intelligence network.

The American troops had the last few years a good working  relationship with the people here and they trained the Iraqi forces, responsible for security. But the Iraqis who were active in this are now threathened. Ahmed worked as an interpreter and wore a mask but is now sought after on the web by a militant organization.

Ahmed, former interpreter for US forces, quoting from text on homepage  

(english)

-”As we are an islamic army we would like to catch this interpreter as soon as possible and cut his head and put him on his back. (kill him)”

A fifth of the population can not read or write and nearly half of those of working age are un- or underemployed. 

Seif alAdjili, vegetable salesman   (arabic)

-Most of the people have no work and they just come to hang around in this market.

Not even half of the youngsters go on to junior high and the low education makes labour inefficient, as well as governmental service.

Walid Abdul Jabar, man in tailor shop    (arabic)

-The security here is bad and also other services. The government says that they will improve things but we don't believe their lies any more.

The crying needs in the community are also reflected in the local

authorities even though they now currently enjoy very luxurious offices in Saddam's old palaces. The Salahaddin province today recieves a very scarce amount of the budget from the central government in Baghdad. Under the Constitution, they should be given close to $ 5 billion from state oil revenues but receives only 200 million. 

Mimaroglou Niyazi, Chairman, Salahaddin Province council     (arabic)

-That is why we need a provincial autonomy from the government so that the provincial council get the funds to manage ourselves of the 4,6% we have the right to recieve from Iraq.  

There are another 500 million doled out to the province through different projects, controlled by the central government. This money can not be supervised, nor controlled by the province and is another factor that may cause corruption and irritation.

Mimaroglou Niyazi, Chairman, Salahaddin Province council     (arabic)

-If the central government does not give us more authority we will demand that in the federal court or get it through a referendum in the province.

Another reason for the autonomy demands of the Salahaddin province are the politically motivated arrests done by Prime Minister Maliki's security service. In recent months, thousands of members of other political parties, mostly Sunnis, have been arrested and according to sources, it is highly likely that they are tortured. This indicates an extremely dangerous

tendency of concentration of power to Maliki's Shiite-dominated party. With U.S. troops now out of the country, this serious political-sectarian conflict might again escalate into violence in Iraq.

Sheikh Sabhan Chyad, dep. Chairman, Salahaddin Province council     

(arabic)

-We ask for more autonomy now because we are afraid that if the parties in the government  become too influenced by religious groups, they will never let us manage ourselves but instead they will control everything.