- guardian.co.uk, Thursday December 28 2000 01.27 GMT
"How can we celebrate and feel happy if we cannot afford it?" asked Munna Khalaf, who lost one of her six children to a serious illness four years ago. The traditional good cheer of the occasion was dampened by the widespread hardship suffered since sanctions were imposed in August 1990 after Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
The three-day feast brought mixed feelings to Iraqis: nostalgia for the good old days tempered by hope that sanctions will soon be lifted.
"For the poor there is little joy, but the rich celebrate ... Before 1990 you'd see people singing and dancing in the streets when the Eid came," a shopkeeper, Abu Saad, 52, said. "
We are sick of these embargoes. We just wait and wait for them to end ... I am fed up and I don't follow the news any more."
The sanctions have not only caused personal suffering, they have also shattered Iraq's economy: the basic salary of a civil servant can be as little as 5,000 dinars (£1.70) a month.
There is no immediate end in sight to the sanctions and the US secretary of state-designate, Colin Powell, has stated his intention to "re-energise" them.
But Iraqis have found grounds for optimism in the decision of some countries to resume flights to Iraq in the latter part of the year.
•US and British war planes struck targets in the south of Iraq yesterday but no casualties were reported, according to Iraqi sources.
An Iraqi military spokesman, quoted by the official Iraqi News Agency INA, said "enemy formations" flew over the provinces of Basra, Dhiqar, Muthanna, Qadissiya, Najaf, Kerbala and Wassit yesterday morning, attacking civilian and service installations. Reuters
