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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
U.S. Marines, Iraqi Police Patrol Baghdad
Aired April 14, 2003 - 23:14 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.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: We try and keep in mind, and you ought to also, that we are in many ways less than a week into the fall of the regime, in some parts of the country even less than that. A certain amount of chaos was anticipated. The question is always: Where does it go? Baghdad may or may not offer some clues in that regard.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in the Iraqi capital, and she joins us again -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, even this morning as sort of dawn broke, we've been hearing gunfire, certainly most of it outgoing from the Marines who are around us here, but even some tank fire. There were helicopters overhead looking for whatever they may be looking for. So an indication that it is still kind of an unstable situation.
The Marines have still not been able to get the police out on the street as they had hoped. There was a chaotic sort of situation at a recruiting station today. And right now, they're only managing to get their first one or two patrol cars, but they're really just about cosmetic as they go around with two armed Marine vehicles and the police don't get out of the cars. So that's still an ongoing work-in- progress.
In the meantime, there is looting going on in the city. There was a bank robbery in which lots of people sort of stormed the Central Bank downtown. Eventually, the Marines came and they stopped it and they took the robbers away. But we don't know what happened after the Marines themselves pulled back and went back to their base.
There have also been any number of cultural centers and cultural positions that have been looted and set fire to. The National Library was the latest, and over the last week we've seen the National Museum, the archeological museum, ballet and music school, the theater and movie center here.
So it's been quite a bad week for the people in the institutions of this city, and they're hoping the Marines as they can perhaps try to eventually calm this, the longer they have to try to work with the civil administrators.
In the meantime, there are also some protests that continue, small ones, but they're noisy. And they mostly shout, "Down with the USA," and, "Please, can we have security?" That certainly is the issue that is most high on peoples' minds and highest on their list of priorities. Now, in some parts of the city very few little signs of quiet are returning. There are some shops that are opening, some restaurants, but it's a very definite minority. And most of the places we go to we see just about every shop closed and perhaps one or two on a corner here or there open.
So the situation is not normal yet, but in a sense is under way -- Aaron.
BROWN: These protests that we just looked at, are they political in nature, or are they mostly about the unrest that's plagued the city now for five or six days?
AMANPOUR: A little bit of both. A lot of it is about the unrest. Some of them are Saddam loyalists, as we've been reporting, sort of a handful of them shouting, "Down, down, USA," this and that, "Down, Down, Bush." But mostly it's about the security. The first one we saw was a group calling for the establishment of a government as soon as possible in order to ensure the peace and ensure security.
So that is a key demand, and certainly there are still militias -- or whoever you want to call them, gunmen, armed people -- in the buildings and sort of threatening the Marines, and they fire back with quite heavy weapons.
So it's still an ongoing situation here -- Aaron.
BROWN: Christiane, thank you -- Christiane Amanpour in Baghdad tonight.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired April 14, 2003 - 23:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: We try and keep in mind, and you ought to also, that we are in many ways less than a week into the fall of the regime, in some parts of the country even less than that. A certain amount of chaos was anticipated. The question is always: Where does it go? Baghdad may or may not offer some clues in that regard.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in the Iraqi capital, and she joins us again -- Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, even this morning as sort of dawn broke, we've been hearing gunfire, certainly most of it outgoing from the Marines who are around us here, but even some tank fire. There were helicopters overhead looking for whatever they may be looking for. So an indication that it is still kind of an unstable situation.
The Marines have still not been able to get the police out on the street as they had hoped. There was a chaotic sort of situation at a recruiting station today. And right now, they're only managing to get their first one or two patrol cars, but they're really just about cosmetic as they go around with two armed Marine vehicles and the police don't get out of the cars. So that's still an ongoing work-in- progress.
In the meantime, there is looting going on in the city. There was a bank robbery in which lots of people sort of stormed the Central Bank downtown. Eventually, the Marines came and they stopped it and they took the robbers away. But we don't know what happened after the Marines themselves pulled back and went back to their base.
There have also been any number of cultural centers and cultural positions that have been looted and set fire to. The National Library was the latest, and over the last week we've seen the National Museum, the archeological museum, ballet and music school, the theater and movie center here.
So it's been quite a bad week for the people in the institutions of this city, and they're hoping the Marines as they can perhaps try to eventually calm this, the longer they have to try to work with the civil administrators.
In the meantime, there are also some protests that continue, small ones, but they're noisy. And they mostly shout, "Down with the USA," and, "Please, can we have security?" That certainly is the issue that is most high on peoples' minds and highest on their list of priorities. Now, in some parts of the city very few little signs of quiet are returning. There are some shops that are opening, some restaurants, but it's a very definite minority. And most of the places we go to we see just about every shop closed and perhaps one or two on a corner here or there open.
So the situation is not normal yet, but in a sense is under way -- Aaron.
BROWN: These protests that we just looked at, are they political in nature, or are they mostly about the unrest that's plagued the city now for five or six days?
AMANPOUR: A little bit of both. A lot of it is about the unrest. Some of them are Saddam loyalists, as we've been reporting, sort of a handful of them shouting, "Down, down, USA," this and that, "Down, Down, Bush." But mostly it's about the security. The first one we saw was a group calling for the establishment of a government as soon as possible in order to ensure the peace and ensure security.
So that is a key demand, and certainly there are still militias -- or whoever you want to call them, gunmen, armed people -- in the buildings and sort of threatening the Marines, and they fire back with quite heavy weapons.
So it's still an ongoing situation here -- Aaron.
BROWN: Christiane, thank you -- Christiane Amanpour in Baghdad tonight.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
