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Iraqi Embassy Upgrades Its D.C. Digs
Iraqi Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie inspects the embassy's temporary quarters, a $5.8 million mansion on Massachusetts Avenue NW near Vice President Cheney's official residence.
(By Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)
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On this day, however, the daily reports of casualties, both Iraqi and American, are topmost in this thoughts.
After a recent visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he said, "These great young men and women are heroes, yet their lives will never be the same. Each one of their sacrifices is a personal tragedy. This has been a joint effort, like a baptism of fire. We will get to the other side of this war, hopefully."
In the meantime, he wants to repair Iraq's image in Washington -- or at least its public facade. After 15 years of neglect, the red-brick embassy off Dupont Circle is in disrepair, with corroding pipes, peeling gold-leaf ceilings and rusty wiring.
To repair the Dupont Circle building will take millions. Sumaidaie is currently soliciting bids. Once the renovation is underway, the Iraqi mission will decamp to the posh new quarters at Observatory Circle.
The new facility sits amid some of the city's major religious centers: across Massachusetts Avenue from St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, next to a construction site for a Buddhist temple, and five blocks from the Islamic Center of Washington. The towers of Washington National Cathedral can be seen nearby.
But the colorful history of 3421 seems more earthly than divine.
The building became the embassy of Sudan in 1961, during the Kennedy administration. When Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971, the mansion became its embassy. In the mid-1980s, at the peak of demonstrations against apartheid, South Africa moved part of its embassy there. In the early 1990s, Kazakhstan launched its U.S. diplomatic mission there after gaining independence from the former Soviet Union.
The most recent previous occupant was the diplomatic mission of Ivory Coast, which has since moved to a new building. During its years at the address, Ivory Coast endured a bloody civil war. In February 2004, days after the Ivorians moved out, the building was damaged by an electrical fire.
In addition to his other duties, Sumaidaie is collecting works by Iraqi artists to exhibit in the embassy's buildings, wise investments for the future, he said.
"It will take a long time for us to heal," he said. "I do believe that giving helps healing, doing something positive. It is the antidote to destruction. In the teeth of the most horrendous violence, there are people out there doing their jobs. This is the best way to deal with fear, a constructive way out. It is one of the ways of healing."
