Jo Wilding, a peace campaigner & humanitarian observer from Bristol has been back in Baghdad since the Autumn. She's sending out reports of life under the US occupation which you can read on her weblog WILDFIRE or by subscribing to wildfirejo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (with ‘subscribe’ in the subject line) She’s currently been involved with Circus2Iraq who have been touring Baghdad entertaining children traumatised by the continuous bombing. Read an excerpt of her diary below.

“We got into our clown kit in Eman’s place behind the barrier made out of metal locker doors in the camp at the air force centre we went to a few days ago to arrange the show. There’s a curtain across the gap in the barrier and another across the doorway into Eman’s room. Inside are a couple of rugs on the floor, a gas cooker and a picture of Al Sadr on the wall, the Shia cleric killed by Saddam. The ceiling is a patchwork of pieces of wood, gappy, so the place is impossible to keep warm. The building houses an indoor swimming pool, no longer fully enclosed, and Eman’s family’s space is concocted out of such walls and ceilings as are left and whatever junk they could seal it with.”

Wildfire | Baghdad Burning | Arms And The Man | Electronic Iraq