HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Happy birthday Mr President. But your party
masks a nation living in fear
Ewen MacAskill in
Tikrit
Monday April 29, 2002 The Guardian A monumental golden horse leaping
from a gilded tank stood at the centre of a lavishly executed public display of
adoration laid on to mark Saddam Hussein's birthday in his home town of Tikrit
last night. He was 65, though there is no retirement age for Iraqi dictators.
Provincial officials had struggled to come up with something suitably
splendid to mark the celebrations. Not an easy challenge, bearing in mind that
the Iraqi leader's personality cult is as strong as ever and he is honoured with
a seemingly infinite number of statues and portraits, most of them, it seems,
located in Tikrit.
Which is why they settled on the monument of President Saddam (containing 76
kilograms of silver) astride a golden steed - itself on top of a tank headed
toward the al-Aqsa mosque, the Muslim holy shrine in Jerusalem - as the
necessary ostentatious mark of respect.
More than 100,000 Iraqis paraded through the streets of his birthplace while
army officers and foreign dignitaries crowded into a stadium to hear speeches,
listen to martial music and watch traditional dancing. Officials said that about
one million people had joined the parades nationwide - many of them shouting
anti-American slogans and some burning dollar bills. Attendance at the rallies
was practically mandatory.
Hundreds of children danced in the Tikrit stadium yesterday, dressed in
traditional Iraqi costumes, mainly flowing silks, but a score were dressed in
black masks with the green headscarves of Hamas, the Palestinian suicide
bombers. It was not a scene designed to dissuade the US from attack.
In public, residents expressed love for their president and made a great show
of bravado, claiming to be unafraid of war with the US and Britain. In private,
the mood was very different - a combination of worry and weary resignation.
As the celebrations reached their culmination last night, flashes and
explosions filled the sky over Baghdad. The fear of the Iraqis is that in six
months or a year's time the same night sky could be filled with flashes and
explosions triggered by American and British warplanes.
President George Bush and Tony Blair have discussed the prospect of a war to
depose the Iraqi dictator, and the Iraqi army is preparing its defences.
Many Iraqis watching the celebrations expressed the hope that war would not
come, but they tended to be morbidly resigned to the fact that it would. A
doctor, reflecting the powerlessness of the population, said: "We cannot change
Bush and we cannot change Saddam."
Baghdad's population faced allied bombing during the 1991 Gulf conflict, and
again by the US and Britain in operation Desert Fox in 1998. In the south of the
country, and to a lesser extent in the north, bombing has continued throughout
the decade, sometimes daily.
Against that background, and after more than 10 years of sanctions, there is
little love for Washington in views expressed either in private or public. On
arrival at Baghdad airport, every third step down the gangway has been
spray-painted in red with "down with the US".
Outside what used to be the American embassy in Baghdad, about 150
journalists, all working for government-controlled organisations, demonstrated
on Saturday evening. Holding candles to mark President Saddam's birthday and
banners denouncing Washington, they chanted: "Bush, Bush, we are not afraid of
America." That confidence is not shared in private on the streets. The worry is
that the bombing may be fiercer this time and that the Iraqi dictator will not
give up Baghdad easily, and it will be the civilians who will suffer most.
Official guests at the birthday celebrations came from from a diverse range
of countries and organisations, among them Othman Dawlat Mirzo, from Jordan's
Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature. A regular visitor to Iraq, he
shared the assessment of the public mood. "They are worried. The war will not be
easy for children, for women, for the old," he said. Such an attack would carry
great risk. "The Americans, when they decide to do something, they just do it.
They do not think of the consequences."
In preparation for a war, President Saddam has ordered the army to begin work
on the defence of Baghdad, with stockpiles of fuel and food already being
gathered. Even more important, he has told his foreign ministry to work harder
to improve relations with the Arab world and elsewhere and to try to delay an
attack.
The prospect of war comes as the country is beginning to recover from the
economic disaster caused in the main by sanctions. In the past two years, the
standard of living in Baghdad has greatly improved. The main street, Arasat,
sells every available luxury, though in the suburbs life can still be harsh.
People are generally better dressed. Brand new and expensive cars are fast
replacing the beat-up vehicles that Iraqis so skilfully maintained throughout
the sanctions.
What is galling for the Iraqis is that just as they see a semblance of
normality returning, they face the prospect of a return to economic ruin.
Which explains why, despite the outpourings of birthday congratulations that
have been running non-stop on Iraqi television for days, President Saddam is
increasingly unpopular. It would be a brave person to criticise him in public,
but there are hints of the public's real feelings in raised eyebrows and
muttered remarks, a sarcastic comment about his new play, a love story, which
opened in a Baghdad theatre last night, or criticism of the behaviour of his son
Uday. Or a moan about the haves and have-nots.
There is admiration for his standing up to the US, but his 22-year-old rule
has led the country into two costly wars and,for a time, international
isolation. Under him, one of the most advanced Arab states, with the best
welfare system in the Middle East, has gone backwards.
But Nada, one of the Iraqi women journalists taking part in the demonstration
against George Bush, dismissed this, and lavish comfort of the president and his
immediate clique. "All the Iraqi presidents had palaces," she said. "Even if
Saddam has 900 palaces, that is not a reason to bomb us."
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