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Iraq: Police diver's story

Steve

Well-known member
Monday, 19 March 2007, 08:29 GMT

My Iraq: Police diver's story
Baghdad police diver, Abd Kadhem
Abd Kadhem had plans to open a diving school

Abd Kadhem has been working as a police diver on the Tigris River in Baghdad for 30 years. He is 50 years old.

Diving is a humanitarian job. We save people's lives and we remove any strange things that we find floating in the river.

Sometimes we can't see what's on the river bed, so we use our hands to feel things and we use our brain to work out what it is.

I might find old cars thrown into the river. You can also come across big white rocks - these too can be dangerous for the diver.

If someone has drowned we look for the body so we can return it to their family.

We use our hands to find the body and drag it out of the water.


We also find people who have been murdered because of the violence, but these are very few.

You see many different marks on these bodies. They can have their hands tied, or have bullets in them.

We feel very sorry for these cases; they are people who were killed without the chance to see any member of their family again.

Our work has actually decreased over the last four years,...

So when you see people have thrown bodies into the river, you hate them. And you hate everyone involved in the murder.

"No religion can encourage people to commit such acts. When I see such things, I feel very sad."
 
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