美国国家公共电台 NPR In Disputed Iraqi Territory, Rebuilding A City Means Doing It Yourself

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Fighting between ISIS and Iraqi forces has devastated 1 cities in northern Iraq. Jalawla is a small city in that part of the country, and it's in the middle of land claimed by both the Iraqi government in Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government. Both sides want to control the oil-rich territory, but neither has stepped up to rebuild it. NPR's Jane Arraf walked the streets with one man who has taken on the job himself.

JANE ARRAF, BYLINE 2: Yacoub Youssef is probably the most popular man in town right now. His official title is subdistrict director. He's essentially 3 the mayor. We're taking a walk through Jalawla, a town held by ISIS in 2014. By the time Kurdish forces and Shia militias 4 drove them out, bridges were destroyed, schools were damaged, electrical lines were down and there were explosives everywhere. Now city officials say most of the town's 80,000 residents are back.

YACOUB YOUSSEF: (Speaking Arabic).

ARRAF: Youssef points out two bridges blown up by ISIS. We're walking across one of them repaired with concrete. When Youssef couldn't get either the Iraqi or the Kurdish government to pay for repairs, he persuaded 35 local residents to come up with $180,000 dollars to pay for it. Local contractors 5 donated some of the labor 6.

YOUSSEF: (Through interpreter) If we waited for the government to do this, it would've cost millions. But our people did this work.

ARRAF: What are they going to call the bridge? I ask him.

YOUSSEF: (Speaking Arabic).

ARRAF: (Laughter).

The challenge bridge, he tells me. Youssef is an exuberant 7 man, the son of a local train conductor. As townspeople walk across the bridge, he shakes hands, jokes and kisses babies.

YOUSSEF: (Speaking Arabic).

ARRAF: But he says Jalawla is complicated, and here's why. The city is ethnically 9 mixed and disputed territory. It's part of central government-controlled Iraq, but Kurdish forces hold it now, and they've made clear they're not leaving. Neither side is able or willing to provide it with services. Youssef reflects the town's ethnic 8 mix. His father was Arab and his mother Kurdish. His wife is Turkmen, the third biggest ethnic group here. We talk in his temporary office in the post office directorate. His own office was blown up and his house leveled.

YOUSSEF: (Through interpreter) When we returned to Jalawla, we saw that it was in ruins. It was horrible. It wasn't even like you were entering a city.

ARRAF: This is a country where most people expect the government to provide them with everything from health care to jobs to electricity and water, even land and houses. So Youssef was asking for a lot.

YOUSSEF: (Through interpreter) People have suffered a catastrophe 10. They see their house destroyed, there's no work and they've been in a camp for two years, and you say give me? It's difficult.

ARRAF: But he says people pitched in. Over the course of a year, they cleaned up and repaired buildings. They pooled money to buy generators 11. They even held a book fair to make sure that every child had something to read. And the international organizations came to help.

YOUSSEF: (Through interpreter) An organization came to us and said, our funds are from Israel. I said, it doesn't matter where you're from. I'm grateful that you're coming to support Jalawla.

ARRAF: That's a potentially dangerous statement in Iraq. But Youssef goes around with no bodyguards 12. We walk to the public school his wife helped to repair. He says she sold her gold jewelry 13 to do it. The teachers tell him there's no heat, but they're proud that they managed to bring the school back. And the girls, coughing and sniffling, are still in high spirits as they race around an ornamental 14 fountain. The fountain works, and it's painted the colors of the Iraqi and the Kurdish flags. Jane Arraf, NPR News in Jalawla, Iraq.