Strategic Umm Qasr port is vital to future of the town

THE port of Umm Qasr is not only strategic for the coalition forces attempting to oust Saddam Hussein, it is vital to the very future of the town.

The celebrations that could be heard as power was finally restored to homes yesterday morning were, in part, because it was a sign the town’s biggest employer may soon be running again.

Before the conflict, around 2,000 people worked on the docks, which British troops have compared in size to those of Gibraltar.

If the war in Iraq is about liberating people from a regime of terror, then providing them with a sustainable future has to go hand in hand with that.

Major John Taylor and his men from the Specialist Team of Royal Engineers, who restored the power, said their main task from military bosses was to get the port working again.

In the short term, it is important for bringing in humanitarian aid but, in the long term, it is to allow the people of Umm Qasr to stand on their own feet. The port was built in the 1980s and, after the Iran/Iraq war, became the only deep water dock in Iraq.

During the last 12 years of sanctions, the port was used for the United Nations oil-for-food programme to provide the people of Iraq with at least some resources.

As is usual in Iraq, the management of the port were all members of Saddam’s brutal Ba’ath party, and many are believed to have fled when the British and US moved in.

However, their influence remains and many of the local workers are still concerned about helping with the restoration work, fearing repercussions.

The port is now home to the thousands of tons of humanitarian aid that is being brought in day by day and transported across Iraq.