InfoAnda - Nostalgia, hope as Baghdad's passenger boats return

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My Profile Top News Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day. Subscribe You are here: Home > News > International > Article Home Business & Finance News U.S. Politics International Technology Entertainment Sports Lifestyle Oddly Enough Health Science Special Coverage Video Pictures Your View The Great Debate Blogs Weather Reader Feedback Do More With Reuters RSS Widgets Mobile Podcasts Newsletters Your View Make Reuters My Homepage Partner Services CareerBuilder Affiliate Network Professional Products Support (Customer Zone) Reuters Media Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Nostalgia, hope as Baghdad's passenger boats return Tue Dec 1, 2009 6:55am EST Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page [-] Text [+] By Aseel Kami BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The passenger boats that have returned to Iraq's Tigris River after years of war are shabby and the water polluted, but for many they are a reminder of happier times and a sign of a better future. Next to a bouncy castle in the shape of a sinking ship, Iraqi families in their best clothes squeezed onto a passenger boat at Baghdad's Abu Nawas park on Monday, the service having started on Friday, the first day of Islam's Eid al-Adha holiday. The festival coincided with the lowest monthly civilian death toll in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion. Eighty-eight civilians died violent deaths in November, as the once steady drumbeat of marketplace and bus station bombings begins to fade. "The Iraqi citizen can now breathe, feel there's some progress. I feel like we've gone back to the good old days," said Ahmed Mohsin, on the boat with his wife and two children, as a Saddam Hussein-era patriotic song blared from a speaker. Boats plying the river were sunk, looted or damaged in the invasion. Years of sectarian slaughter ensued, preventing the resumption of traffic on a waterway which became more known for the bloated and bound corpses dragged from it. But violence has fallen sharply in the last two years, and Iraq's Transport Ministry has launched a project to bring boats for tourism and general transport back to the river. Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-led authorities are keen to restore a sense of normality before a general election early next year, hoping voters will credit them with ending years of violence. "Baghdad is clouded with some sadness, but with this project we will breathe life back into it," said Ismat Amer, head of the Transport Ministry's general company for sea transport, which also oversees river traffic. "This is only the beginning...we will create a river full of docks and boats and floating restaurants," he said. A BETTER FUTURE? A boat worker said four large passenger vessels were in operation, but there were plans for more, including one for weddings. Amer said 16 riverside docks had been rehabilitated. Children among the roughly 40 passengers from Abu Nawas park squealed with delight as the boat cleaved the muddy brown waters of the Tigris, which divides Iraq's capital. Reeds and islands have emerged in the river as its level and flow have fallen, partly due to dams upstream in Turkey. A boat worker warned that the vessel -- apparently refurbished -- would sink unless passengers shifted to one end. Abu Nawas park itself has seen raucous holiday celebrations this Eid, a sight unseen in years, as residents feel safer. Continued... View article on single page Share: Del.icio.us Digg Mixx Yahoo! 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