More needs to be done to help Iraq recover from years of conflict, an Iraqi said on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the war.

If you left the battlefield they would consider it deserting, you don’t want to serve the country and it is treason. There were consequences, prison or sometimes execution

Nameer Sallu said people in parts of Iraq are struggling with no water or electricity and the country still needs help to recover.

Sallu, 36, served in a non-combat unit in the Iraqi Army when war broke out in March 2003, but now works for Reach, a partner organisation of UK NGO Christian Aid.

“I went to Baghdad recently for some work and to see my family,” he said. “For me I don’t see any difference in Baghdad.

“For two days there was no water and for power I think we got 12 hours per day – that was because people pay for private generators.”

He said part of the crisis was due to Iraq’s efforts to exit Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.

Many Chapter 7 sanctions, which aimed to allow the UN Security Council to prevent “acts of aggression”, have now been lifted and it is hoped the remainder will be ended this year.

“The problem that I am noticing, the Iraqi Government tries to take Iraq out of Chapter 7 of the Charter of the UN so we are trying to show the international community that we are okay,” he added.

“The Government wants to be out, so it can control its own budget and money, and things like that.

“To do this, the Government is trying to show the international community that the situation in Iraq is getting better and better, but I don’t think so.”

He said he thought the international community was aware of what was going on “on the ground”, but said more help was still needed to improve the situation.

“Iraq needs more help.

“NGOs are trying to do their own bit but there is still more to be done for these people.”

Sallu said he remembered the start of the war “like yesterday”.

He served in Baghdad in a non-combat military unit, and described how many civilians fled the city but soldiers could not.

“If you left the battlefield they would consider it deserting, you don’t want to serve the country and it is treason.

“There were consequences, prison or sometimes execution.

“For civilians, most of the people left town. They got out of Baghdad.”

His own family – his mother and two brothers – stayed in the area.

“My family told me nobody stayed. A few families stayed in the neighbourhood. My family were one of this people who stayed.”

He said that for many, the arrival of coalition troops was welcome, especially young people faced with compulsory military service.

“There were people who had this idea that this was an invasion, but for young people they were very happy.

“Service in the army was about building up the army, it was not about values or about serving the country.”

He said civilians were often faced with confusing news about what was happening across the country: “People were hearing from different places and different opinions.”

In November 2005, Sallu began working for Reach.

The organisation works with Iraqi communities to help them engage with authorities to get their needs understood and provided for, including things like road building and renovating, and making sure livestock vaccinations are delivered to farmers.

“Before the war, in 2003, NGOs were not allowed,” he said.

“Many people had this feeling that they should support and help their communities.

“It was an idea for a lot of Iraqis and a great experience for me.”

Some facts and figures

• According to Iraq Body Count, an organisation which cross-checks data from media reports, hospital and mortuary records, the civilian death toll stands at 112,017 to 122,438 since March 2003. Studies by medical journal The Lancet have suggested that the true figure is far higher. A report in October 2006 stated the death toll as 654,965.

• 210 journalists and media assistants were killed between March 2003 and the beginning of 2008, with two missing and 15 others kidnapped, according to figures from Reporters Without Borders.

• A poll of 2,000 Iraqis in 2007 found that 43 per cent said life was better than before the invasion, 36 per cent said it was worse and 22 per cent thought it was roughly the same.

• The same survey, commissioned by the BBC and other Western media, found that 22 per cent of Iraqis supported the presence of coalition forces, with 78 per cent opposing occupying troops.

• A new Iraqi Constitution defining the country as democratic and pluralist was adopted in October 2005.

• Democratic elections held in December 2005 saw 12 million Iraqis – 76 per cent of the electorate – turn out to vote.

• However, a report published earlier this month found that 10 years on from the intervention, the country remains mired in human rights abuses. Thousands of Iraqis are detained without trial or serving prison sentences imposed after unfair hearings, torture remains rife, and the new Iraq is one of the world’s leading executioners, Amnesty International said.

Build-up and aftermath of the war

2002

January 29: US President George Bush names Iraq, North Korea and Iran the “axis of evil” in his State of the Union address. “By seeking weapons of mass destruction,” he said, “these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.”

March 5: Dozens of Labour MPs urge then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to oppose military action, amid reports of a Cabinet split over the issue.

July 16: Blair says Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programme represents “a gathering threat” to which the world must react. Several days later, he indicates the UK could back military action without a fresh UN resolution.

August 5: An opinion poll finds more than half British voters oppose military action as petition against war signed by Church leaders is presented to Downing Street.

September 3: Blair declares that he is “in absolute agreement” with the US that “Iraq poses a real and a unique threat to the security of the region and the rest of the world”.

September 7: Bush meets Blair at Camp David. “The policy of inaction is not a policy we can responsibly subscribe to,” Blair said.

September 24: The British Parliament is recalled to discuss mounting crisis as Government publishes dossier of intelligence evidence against Saddam including a claim – later discredited – that weapons of mass destruction could be activated within 45 minutes. Blair tells MPs not to shirk from doing what is “necessary and right”.

September 28: Hundreds of thousands of anti-war protesters march through London to a rally in Hyde Park as Britain and the US propose a new UN resolution authorising the “use of all necessary means” against Iraq should Saddam continue to refuse to comply. Blair says he is “confident” of winning approval.

October 7: In a national address, Bush calls Saddam a “murderous tyrant” and says he must disarm Iraq or the US “will lead a coalition to disarm him”.

October 10-11: The US House of Representatives and Senate vote to authorise Bush to use military force if necessary.

November 8: The UN Security Council unanimously approves US-drafted compromise resolution saying Saddam would face “serious consequences” if he failed to comply with weapons inspections, which resume later.

November 11: Then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon confirms the UK is preparing for possible military action.

December 12: Iraq delivers dossier of evidence denying existence of weapons of mass destruction. It is later dismissed by the UK and US. Blair says he is “deeply sceptical”.

2003

January 7: The UK announces the deployment to the Gulf of a powerful amphibious task force with 3,000 Royal Marine commandos and the largest mobilisation of reservists since the 1991 Gulf War. Hoon says it would leave Saddam in no doubt that Britain “means business”.

January 20: Britain announces that 26,000 troops, including detachments of Paras and the Desert Rats, will join the Commandos as Blair insists he will have public support for invasion.

February 3: The British Government publishes fresh dossier of evidence of Iraq weapons of mass destruction – which is hailed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell but is later revealed to be copied in large part from a Californian postgraduate student’s outdated thesis.

February 14: UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix says his team has found no weapons of mass destruction.

February 26: Blair suffers biggest backbench revolt of his premiership as 122 Labour MPs vote against military action because case “as yet unproven”.

March 14: Intense diplomacy fails to secure UN Security Council agreement for a resolution authorising force. France says it will veto any such resolution amid bitter word of words between London and Paris.

March 16: Blair, Bush and then Spanish PM José Maria Aznar meet in the Azores and declare the diplomatic window would close within a day.

March 17: The US withdraws its UN resolution without a vote and Bush addresses the nation to prepare it for war. Then UK attorney general Lord Goldsmith declares military action legally justified by UN resolutions. But then Commons leader Robin Cook becomes the first Cabinet Minister to quit over the impending war, winning a rare Commons standing ovation for his resignation statement.

March 18: Blair survives another massive anti-war revolt – this time of 121 Labour MPs – as he threatens to quit if Parliament blocks military action in an impassioned speech.

March 20: Iraq is invaded by a multinational task force.

April 9: Baghdad falls to US forces. Americans pull down a statue of the ousted dictator Saddam.

May 1: Bush declares that major combat operations in Iraq have ended. By the end of the month, British military involvement has been cut to around 18,000 troops.

May 15: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says it is possible that hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq may never be found.

July 18: UK Ministry of Defence scientist David Kelly is found dead with slashed wrists on land close to his Oxfordshire home. Kelly’s conversations with a BBC journalist led to reports the Government “sexed up” the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.

December 13: Saddam is captured.