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CNN Live At Daybreak

Normality Returning to Baghdad; Restoring Power in Baghdad

Aired April 18, 2003 - 06:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head live to Baghdad right now, where a change of the guard is now occurring, one that may bring order to a city with no central government.
Michael Holmes is live in the Iraqi capital.

Good morning to you again.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol, once again. Yes, that's right. We've been telling you over the last few days about some semblance of order and normality coming back to the center of Baghdad.

I'm just going to relay to you a story. One of our cameramen was out just a couple of hours ago, and he came across the bodies of two men just lying in the street not too far from where we are now. They had been shot. Who they were, who shot them, we don't know. But the curious thing about normality was how people were simply walking around them. They were strolling around as if they weren't there, life was going on as normal.

Now, a matter of a mere few yards away from that, a huge pile of ammunition. There were RPGs, rocket-propelled grenades. There were grenades themselves. There were rockets there.

Again, this is an ongoing problem in Baghdad, and we did a report on it just the other day. You drive around this city, and you find piles of ammunition, either in buildings or literally in the streets. It's a very, very big concern here that children are going to pick up some of this stuff and be killed or seriously injured.

So a slice of normality there that is quite bizarre. It's a perspective on normality, I suppose.

One other major problem that's being going on in this city, as we've been reporting to you, is electricity. More than two weeks since the lights went out in Baghdad, they are still not on.

Ryan Chilcote has a report now from one power plant.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Generals are no strangers to power meetings, but this one is with Iraqis at a Baghdad power plant.

The American military's mission: to get electric power back on for the people of Baghdad ASAP. Easy enough to do if you have the right materials.

JANAN BENNAM, DAWRAH POWER PLANT: If I have (UNINTELLIGIBLE), but I don't, of course, now. I have short circuit between these...

CHILCOTE: This plant could supply electricity to almost all of Baghdad's five million people.

BENNAM: This transformer...

CHILCOTE: Janan Bennam, the plant's engineer, rarely stops moving.

BENNAM: Now, the biggest problem, first, we need power to start the power stations -- I mean, to produce electricity, and then to transmit to Baghdad.

CHILCOTE: The second biggest problem: encouraging workers who fear reprisals from Saddam Hussein's supporters and attacks from looters who already broke into their offices here to take the furniture. The power plant's own workers are immobilized, just like the rest of the city, by the absence of electricity.

BENNAM: And now, I try to get cars from other offices, from other places, to bring my people, because you know, there is no fuel, because there is no electricity. Electricity first, then fuel. After fuel, transportation of course.

CHILCOTE: There is plenty of U.S. military transport in the driveway and American soldiers in the offices, helping to get the plant online, appreciated help as long as it's short-term.

BENNAM: You know, when I see my house and my country and my power station under control of army, it's difficult. It's really difficult, you know. Also, they take my office.

CHILCOTE (on camera): Power is a good place to start in Baghdad. It is tough to imagine a capital city without it. With it comes the lights, water and sewage treatment. And in the hopes of the Iraqi and U.S. military here, a healthy output of stability.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, with the 101st Airborne in southern Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, that would certainly alleviate some of the frustration felt by people in Baghdad about the power situation. If just a little bit of power could get out for a few hours a day, it would make all the difference.

Tensions are still high here in the city, Carol. Shots around the city are ubiquitous in many ways, and I can tell you that life going on as normal is quite a weird thing. You see buses now driving up and down, passengers getting on and off. And not a minute or two before you came to us, there was a burst of automatic -- actually, it was semi-automatic gunfire from behind my position here. Quite a surreal sort of situation -- Carol. COSTELLO: Understand. Michael Holmes live from Baghdad.

And I mentioned a changing of the guard at the top of that story, and the Marines are moving out and the Army is moving in -- that's what we meant by that -- to restore order to Baghdad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




Baghdad>


Aired April 18, 2003 - 06:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's head live to Baghdad right now, where a change of the guard is now occurring, one that may bring order to a city with no central government.
Michael Holmes is live in the Iraqi capital.

Good morning to you again.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol, once again. Yes, that's right. We've been telling you over the last few days about some semblance of order and normality coming back to the center of Baghdad.

I'm just going to relay to you a story. One of our cameramen was out just a couple of hours ago, and he came across the bodies of two men just lying in the street not too far from where we are now. They had been shot. Who they were, who shot them, we don't know. But the curious thing about normality was how people were simply walking around them. They were strolling around as if they weren't there, life was going on as normal.

Now, a matter of a mere few yards away from that, a huge pile of ammunition. There were RPGs, rocket-propelled grenades. There were grenades themselves. There were rockets there.

Again, this is an ongoing problem in Baghdad, and we did a report on it just the other day. You drive around this city, and you find piles of ammunition, either in buildings or literally in the streets. It's a very, very big concern here that children are going to pick up some of this stuff and be killed or seriously injured.

So a slice of normality there that is quite bizarre. It's a perspective on normality, I suppose.

One other major problem that's being going on in this city, as we've been reporting to you, is electricity. More than two weeks since the lights went out in Baghdad, they are still not on.

Ryan Chilcote has a report now from one power plant.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Generals are no strangers to power meetings, but this one is with Iraqis at a Baghdad power plant.

The American military's mission: to get electric power back on for the people of Baghdad ASAP. Easy enough to do if you have the right materials.

JANAN BENNAM, DAWRAH POWER PLANT: If I have (UNINTELLIGIBLE), but I don't, of course, now. I have short circuit between these...

CHILCOTE: This plant could supply electricity to almost all of Baghdad's five million people.

BENNAM: This transformer...

CHILCOTE: Janan Bennam, the plant's engineer, rarely stops moving.

BENNAM: Now, the biggest problem, first, we need power to start the power stations -- I mean, to produce electricity, and then to transmit to Baghdad.

CHILCOTE: The second biggest problem: encouraging workers who fear reprisals from Saddam Hussein's supporters and attacks from looters who already broke into their offices here to take the furniture. The power plant's own workers are immobilized, just like the rest of the city, by the absence of electricity.

BENNAM: And now, I try to get cars from other offices, from other places, to bring my people, because you know, there is no fuel, because there is no electricity. Electricity first, then fuel. After fuel, transportation of course.

CHILCOTE: There is plenty of U.S. military transport in the driveway and American soldiers in the offices, helping to get the plant online, appreciated help as long as it's short-term.

BENNAM: You know, when I see my house and my country and my power station under control of army, it's difficult. It's really difficult, you know. Also, they take my office.

CHILCOTE (on camera): Power is a good place to start in Baghdad. It is tough to imagine a capital city without it. With it comes the lights, water and sewage treatment. And in the hopes of the Iraqi and U.S. military here, a healthy output of stability.

Ryan Chilcote, CNN, with the 101st Airborne in southern Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, that would certainly alleviate some of the frustration felt by people in Baghdad about the power situation. If just a little bit of power could get out for a few hours a day, it would make all the difference.

Tensions are still high here in the city, Carol. Shots around the city are ubiquitous in many ways, and I can tell you that life going on as normal is quite a weird thing. You see buses now driving up and down, passengers getting on and off. And not a minute or two before you came to us, there was a burst of automatic -- actually, it was semi-automatic gunfire from behind my position here. Quite a surreal sort of situation -- Carol. COSTELLO: Understand. Michael Holmes live from Baghdad.

And I mentioned a changing of the guard at the top of that story, and the Marines are moving out and the Army is moving in -- that's what we meant by that -- to restore order to Baghdad.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




Baghdad>