180 Days in the Green Zone

Book excerpt: The book covers actual experiences and reflections through the diaries of a UN Staff Member stationed in the Green Zone/ also called the International Zone in Baghdad-Iraq. The original staff's mission was planned for 180 days, yet it was extended later to cover a longer period from January 2006 to September 2007. It is a story about the daily life of the author, colleagues, and counterparts, national and international staffs working with the UN, other International Agencies, Diplomatic Missions, as well as officers, parliamentarians and employees of the Iraqi Government during tough times in an unstable country. While all international staffs were not allowed to leave the well fortified and safe grounds of the Green Zone, except in very limited cases and when given prior security authorization always escorted with heavily armed professional military force, the author had the advantage and flexibility of residing inside the Green Zone, yet having at the same time the freedom, as an Iraqi national, to leave unescorted to the dangerous Red Zone. Therefore, he was in a position to reflect the tough and risky daily life of suffering Iraqis bearing the brunt due to security deterioration as well as other hardships and lack of basic needs and services. Mentioning real names of certain, UN and Iraqi, high ranking national and international officials was necessary for the true credible sequence of events with no intention of compromising any one, but just to reflect the genuine happenings during that period of time, in the Green Zone, the Red Zone, and in Iraq, from the author's perspective about what actually happened in a story worth to be told.