Despite frequent attacks Czech official feels safe in Baghdad
On Thursday 10 people died in Baghdad when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police station. Later that day two American soldiers were shot dead in the Iraqi capital. At the moment 20 Czech officials are in Baghdad, contributing their expertise to the effort to reconstruct a country devastated by war. One of the Czech officials, Martin Dvorak, has just made a brief visit to the Czech Republic. In the light of the frequent killings in Baghdad, I asked Mr Dvorak how safe he felt there.
We hear a lot about problems in Iraq, like power cuts, shortages - how bad are conditions there?
"We have to understand that for the Iraqi people it is very complicated, they don't like it of course. They are used to living on the streets all night long and now there is a curfew. Also, there is not enough electricity and during the summer, this summer was very hot and without air-conditioning it was very difficult."
Do you see many improvements for Iraqis, in everyday life?
"I see a lot of improvements. A lot of the schools have been repaired, a lot of energy technology has been repaired, and so on and so on. I think it is going on and I feel that a lot of money has been spent - maybe things could be even better after so much money was spent...anyway, I see progress."
"It is very nice to be a Czech. If you say you are a Czech everyone smiles at you. If you are not American everything is easier. Being in the Green Zone in Baghdad you have just limited possibility to meet regular Iraqi people. On the other hand, I didn't meet any aggressive condemnation to my person on the street."
Your title is 'deputy director of donor co-ordination at the Council for International Co-ordination'. In two week's time there's going to be a donor conference in Madrid to help Iraq to recover, so to speak: do you think the Czech Republic will make significant donations to Iraq at that conference?
"I think no-one expects the Czech Republic will put on the table a few million or billion dollars. On the other hand, just now, right now we are present in Iraq with 20 experts, they are working for the reconstruction of Iraq. It is one of the contributions. Secondly, I think we are just now in the process of preparing some new contributions like student exchanges...these kinds of contributions I think could be expected from the Czech Republic. We aren't preparing a big amount of money to be put on the table, but what I think is it's important to show we are here, we are ready to help."
