Baghdad Diaries
Queen Shebad - “the famous ivory and gold statue of the exquisite young woman with a crown of gold stars who reigned
here hundreds of years before Christ and looks so modern she could be on the cover of Vogue.”
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In October last year I wrote to my old friend Margarita Papandreou, with whom I took delegations of women leaders to
NATO HQ in the 1980s, to suggest that we invite high profile leaders or personalities of integrity to come to Baghdad in
efforts to prevent a war. We wrote to Mary Robinson, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Jimmy Carter, Clare Short, Michael Douglas,
Mary McAleese, Tina Turner and others who all said they couldn’t, for various reasons. So Margarita and I decided to go
ourselves, at our own expense, to do some fact-finding about how life is for ordinary Iraqis. I phoned the Foreign
Office to ask for a briefing on the current situation and they told me flatly not to go, refusing any information.
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Thursday 2nd January 2003
Arrived Amman in Jordan 11.30pm. No sign of Margarita. I had no ticket to fly on to Baghdad at 4am, only a kind of
voucher, which was removed by a young man at the transit office who said ‘come back in an hour’. The place was deserted
but for some Pakistani travellers sleeping on the floor, so I did the same for a while. One of them lent me a blanket.
When I went back to the transit office for the third time, there was still no-one to be seen, so I asked a security
guard where I could find water to drink. He took me down some corridors and into the first class lounge, and there,
beaming, was Margarita! With her was Omaima Rawas, Vice President of the Syrian Arabic League, Fotini Sianou, President
of the Women’s Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation, and Zeynab Oral, a Turkish journalist. Big hugs of
welcome “Schilla (as she calls me) come, sit down (big comfy sofas) eat, drink!”
And magically, at this point, my ticket to Baghdad arrived…
When at 4.30am the plane actually left I was even more amazed, having been told that many flights between Amman and
Baghdad are cancelled, since the US controls the no-fly zone. As I board the plane, a man in a yellow jumper gets up to
meet me; this is Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary General of the UN who resigned in protest at the genocide
caused by the UN sanctions, when he was director of the Oil-for Food programme in 1998. We discuss why we have had no
reply at all from Dr. Amin (Iraqi representative in London) with regard to our programme in Iraq. When you go to a
country like Iraq you have to have official approval from one govt dept or another, or you get nowhere. Do they even
know we are coming? Halliday tells me the BBC have been asked to leave Iraq and are broadcasting from Amman. He says he
is in favour of a War Crimes Tribunal on Iraq as long as Bush senior is in the dock too; for using depleted uranium
shells, for the Basra Road massacre, and for supplying chemicals to Iraq. This gives me some sense of who Denis is.
Margarita was also worrying about the fact that no programme had been set up, since she had not heard from her contact,
Dr. Al Hashimi. I had also sent him two emails and had no reply. I said don’t worry, it will work out.
***************
Friday 3rd January 2003, 7am
On arrival at Baghdad airport we are met by a flotilla of officials! Dr. Al Hashimi beams, presides over our questions
and possible visits. ‘You can go wherever you want and talk to whoever you want. We will decide all that at a meeting
tomorrow morning.’ (Friday is a holiday in Iraq.) In this vast marble-halled empty airport, devoid of signs, advertising
or people, tacked up on one of the doors is a hand-written sign saying ‘DOWN USA’. We had to check in our mobile phones
at customs. Otherwise no baggage search and no formalities; we get into a Mercedes to go to Al Rasheed hotel. To enter
you have to walk over a mosaic in the floor of the face of George Bush Senior with a caption: BUSH IS CRIMINAL. Inside
the foyer is a vast spruce tree with incongruous Christmas decorations. The hotel is efficient, friendly,
extraordinarily normal and b costs $73 per night if friend, $200 if journalist. When you change money you need a plastic bag to carry the notes
because $1 = 1750 dinars (in 1981, 1 dinar was worth $3 – an approx 6000% devaluation).
Although I was tired I could hardly sleep and so went with Denis Halliday to the souk. We walked down a whole street of
book sellers, people selling 1966 copies of Time magazine and 1977 copies of the British Medical Journal. Denis was
greeted warmly by a man selling 1950s parker fountain pens who remembered him from 4 years ago, and a delighted carpet
seller, who hailed him as Iraq’s bravest friend and of course produced tea in little sherry schooners with masses of
sugar. He said this time when the bombing starts he and his family will stay. In 1991 they left. They fear that this
time chaos will come, and that if they are not there, their houses will be looted. They fear terrible blood-letting as
people settle scores with members of the Ba-ath party.
Over lunch we began our first strategy session. We agreed that all other rationales for military action (WMD, war on
terror, regime change) are superfluous, the real reason is control of oil supplies, not only to the West, but also to
the East. We discussed in depth a number of possibilities of tension reduction moves that could be made now by both
sides. In the evening the Greek Charge d’Affaires (note: we British have no diplomatic representation in Baghdad and if
I get into trouble I have to go to the Polish Embassy) took us to a restaurant which served two enormous fish from the
Tigris river. We drank wine which is rare and strategised some more. The guitarist sang the BeeGees song ‘Have you seen
my wife Mr Jones? Do you know what it’s like on the outside?’. I came back to the hotel and drew up a diagram of what we
perceive as the needs of Bush and Hussein respectively, and how some new moves might satisfy these.
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Saturday 4th January 2003 8.30am
We drove across town to meet Dr. Al Hashimi at his run-down offices of the organisation for Peace, Friendship and
Solidarity. He was previously minister of higher education and ambassador to France, and is an adviser to Saddam
Hussein. As we were going into his offices, I spotted Jan Oberg, my old colleague from the Transnational Foundation in
Sweden, in the corridor. I invited him this evening to our planning session. From Dr. Al Hashimi we requested meetings
as follows: with Tariq Aziz ( Deputy Prime Minister); Nagi Sabri (Foreign Minister); Omer Rashid (Oil Minister); the
minister of information; the most senior woman minister or official; and visits to a girls’ high school, a hospital,
women in their homes, and the bomb shelter hit on 13.2.91.
Dr. Al-Hashimi says he will do his best. He’s a sad and very angry man, profoundly attached to rhetoric. He talked at
length about the effects of the US/UK using depleted uranium shells (Hoon, UK defence minister, has apparently admitted
to Parliament using 50 shells; Dr. Al-Hashimi says 130 tonnes were dropped) – the particles are spreading by wind and
water but they can’t check in which direction because not allowed the airborne radiation detection equipment. Rates of
cancer have increased catastrophically, and now they’re getting a spate of birth defects. When medical equipment is sent
to Iraq, the US and UK insist on the computers that run the machines being taken out, so they lie useless.
On inspections-;- When Blair announced his ‘dossier’ in September on WMD in Iraq, they invited him to send British
inspectors to wherever he said the weapons were. He didn’t reply. Two weeks ago they invited the CIA to take inspectors
to wherever they say the weapons are, and they declined.
We concluded with some Iraqi Bush jokes. Three leaders caught by guerrillas in S. America and lined up before a firing
squad. First leader shouts “Earthquake!” and in the ensuing chaos he gets away. Second leader shouts “Hurricane!” and in
the ensuing chaos gets away. Then it comes to Bush, left alone before the firing squad. He shouts “Fire!”. Nobody would
tell me any Saddam jokes. I bet they’ve got them though.
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Saturday 4th January 2003 11.30am Visit to Saddam Childrens’ Teaching Hospital
It was shocking. This country, which had a better health service than the NHS in the 1980s, cannot afford to patch the
cracks in the plaster, let alone treat these acutely sick children. They have one nurse for 16 beds, where there used to
be one nurse for two beds. Every child has a mother or grandmother giving full time care. One 14 year-old girl who was
‘adopted’ by Denis Halliday along with three others, now has six out of the eight drugs needed to treat her leukaemia.
The three others died. In one bed was Omar, three years old, who has a plastino plastoma, which attacks the kidneys, and
then goes to the brain and nervous system; his head was enlarged three times, his face swollen entirely out of shape and
eyes blind. His mother sits with him looking like a Madonna and waiting for him to die. Tiny Aya (= ‘Miracle) was born
with a second head, a brain sack attached to the back of her own head (a condition known as meningo myelo ceal? I wrote
it down phonetically) not seen before the mid 1990s, and was lying in a makeshift incubator ‘until she is strong enough
for us to operate’. Dr. Ahmed Fadeh told me there are so many cases he simply can’t treat because the equipment is worn
out, he lacks spare parts, and he has not got the drugs he needs. He is an energetic man in his thirties who seemed to
survive on being factual and calm; the hospital was quiet and hardly any children cried or even spoke. Margarita has
visited hospitals five times in Iraq since 1990, and said conditions are worse than ever before.
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Saturday 4th January 2003 1pm. Visit to Al Amarya Shelter
This shelter, which looks like a rectangular concrete box, was bombed at 4.30am on 13th February 1991 by two
lazer-guilded bombs each weighing two tons. The first penetrated two meters of concrete ceiling like a drill; we saw the
hole with reinforcements hanging down. 422 women and children were sleeping below on bunks: 408 of them died, most
burned to death in 400C temperatures because the second bomb went (smartly) into the ventilation system and created an
oven of the entire building. The whole thing took four minutes. When the emergency services went about cleaning up that
floor, they used so much water that it filled up the basement to shoulder height. Bits of flesh, hair and eyes were
floating in the water and are now stuck to the basement walls. I touched them.
The US said they thought the building was used for military operations, they were using ‘old maps’, and apologised. We
will suggest to the Ministry of Information that they publish up to date maps this time, showing where the 34 shelters
are.
But everyone we have spoken to so far says they will not use the shelters this time.
Everywhere we go in the city there are statues of Saddam Hussein brandishing what looks like a shotgun, in a raised
hand. He has a homburg or bowler hat on and looks absurd, like a mannikin.
This is an absurd business, if it wasn’t so serious.
Everywhere the smiles of the women are ravishing.
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Saturday 4th January 6pm.
Exchange of information meeting, including Jan Oberg and his Swedish colleague, and Denis Halliday, who has had a
meeting with the foreign minister today.
Denis had visited a three-generation family he knows. Families have been given three months’ supply of food (and now a
further two months’ worth) in order to get it out of the main storage sites so that it won’t be destroyed. They are also
stockpiling water but have no suitable large containers so it’s all in bottles. People with gardens are asked to ‘dig’
wells. It’s an indication of what they conclude from US and UK behaviour, that they believe we will bomb food stores.
Although it is so close the zero hour, there may yet be possibilities for negotiation. Just before Christmas US Defence
Under Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, quoting
Churchill ‘We arm to parley’, and saying the US had created a credible threat in order to secure better negotiations. He
then repeated the speech at NATO, so it must be a serious message being conveyed, and possibly the first bricks in a
bridge to retreat over?
We thought hard about a possible role for the European Union, and came up with the idea outlined later on this page.
Margarita’s son George is Foreign Minster of Greece which happens to hold the presidency of the European Union from now
until mid-2003. She telephoned him with the idea.
We heard that the Russian game plan is to let the Americans and Brits go ahead with their Iraqi adventure and fall flat
on their faces. I rather doubt this, if it’s true that the Russians’ oil deal with the Iraqis (1997) has now been
cancelled by the Iraqis, because the Russians allowed themselves to be persuaded by the US to agree UN resolution 1441
in exchange for a share-out of Iraqi oil contacts post attack.
Possible role for the European Union
To convene and support a meeting between the most senior representatives of the United States and of Iraq to ‘explore
whether all avenues short of war have been exhausted’.
This meeting would need to be announced before 27th January, perhaps to take place in mid-February. It would need to
take place in a very safe environment (perhaps Crete) and to avoid all pitfalls of a conference like Rambouillet, but
employing state-of-the-art conflict resolution techniques. (Expert practitioners could be used such as William Ury of
the Harvard Negotiation Project, who ran the successful Camp David meeting under President Carter between Begin and
Sadat). It would be useful if the meeting was endorsed by the Arab League, by Moscow, by Beijing and by Tony Blair.
These moves could be supported by France and by Germany, in their chairmanship of the UN Security Council in January and
February 2003 respectively.
The agenda of the meeting could include:
Exploration of the interests rather than the positions of both countries.
Request to each side to advance some concrete proposals for tension reduction. [ We heard that Iraq is currently opening
door to a multi-party system and Saddam has ordered the scrapping of much human rights deprivation legislation.]
We were invited by Greek friends to dinner at a posh restaurant in the only flash shopping street in Baghdad, quite
glitzy, no recognisable chain stores although they said there was a Gap there somewhere once. Outside the restaurant
there was a large man speaking into a mobile phone – quite a shock to be shocked by seeing a mobile phone. We assumed he
was Muhabarat, secret police.
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Sunday 5th January 2003 8.30am Meeting with Nagi Sabri, Foreign Minister
A sharp, articulate man in uniform who was five years in the UK running the Iraqi Cultural Centre and was Ambassador in
Vienna; he made a pretty opening remark about the role of Athens and Baghdad in the history of civilisation.
He said that if the US controls Iraq it will control all of the Middle East, and the flow of oil not just to the US but
to Europe and the far east as well. He sees Iraq as key to US domination over the entire world, and sees Israel as part
of the planning of this campaign.
He detailed how Iraq is moving in the direction of individual human rights; apparently in October Saddam Hussein asked
every minister to review legislation ‘from emergency times’ and this is what they have so far decided:
1. Amnesty to all prisoners, political and criminal: ‘all detainees have left prison.’ We later heard that some have
been re-arrested and that crime rates have increased…
2. At insistence of human rights organisations, Iraq has now abolished ‘special courts’ linked to security violations.
Defendants had no rights of appeal and human rights organisations said they were summary trials.
3. Two months ago Iraq reduced the $200 fee for an exit visa to $10.
4. Abolished Sharia laws saying that thieves’ hands will be cut off.
5. Previously parents could only name their children with Iraqi origin; this has been scrapped.
6. Until one month ago if you wanted to build a house in the country you had to get the written agreement of 22
ministries (archaeology, transport, oil etc). No longer.
7. Any Iraqi not linked to the intelligence services has the right to return and to criticise the government. e.g. the
Iraqi National Alliance, one of the two main opposition parties, came here recently, in public.
They would like to put this together as a big package and announce it. Our TV crew interviewer asked what he expected
from the EU. He repeated the point about US control of keys to prosperity and economic advancement, via oil, in Europe
as well. So it is in their interest to stop this campaign.
He stressed that Iraq would be willing to enter an EU sponsored dialogue with the US.
My overall impression was that he is calm and self-contained, to the point of making me wonder whether he realises that
time is running out. He’s a bit like a Jack Straw with a steel backbone.
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Sunday 5th 10am Dr Hoda Ammash, most senior women in the Ba-‘ath party
We met at her home which was full of very lifelike silk flowers made locally. She graduated in microbiology and did
post-grad work in the US, speaks careful immaculate English.
I asked if it was true (we had been told) that 46% of the Iraqi population was under 16. She said she didn’t know and
would find out, but she’s surprised because sanctions prevented people marrying, and so many children have died. Under
these strange conditions she said, ‘people are insisting on living.’
In response to my question as to whether I could film women in their homes who would be allowed to not say predictable
things, she confirmed invites to the media to come and film normal life and show what people in Iraq are like. To my
surprise she said:
‘People here bear every respect for western people and western civilisation. We respect your technological advancement
and western values, both of the people and of the system. Also we know that westerners are being given the opportunity
to learn about Arabic civilisations. Yet a hatred is being manufactured [by some] to engineer a clash of civilisations.’
In answer to a question about how she feels about the impending war: ‘I have a son and a daughter, and two grandchildren
(she looks 35) and of course I worry. But defending Iraq is more important than worrying. Children are afraid. High
school kids don’t know whether to study seriously and prepare for exams. But we have no choice.’
She said Iraq has paid $3000 per day per inspector for eight years (the first two years of inspections were paid by the
UN). Inspections were extended to the universities. She taught microbiology and inspectors came in every three weeks,
‘searching behind the cabinets. They would enter exam halls where students were doing their finals and search under
chairs.’
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Sunday 5th January 2003 11am. Tariq Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister
The meeting held in the cabinet office, a vast white building with acres of wine-red carpet. The meeting room had vast
armchairs positioned around the periphery of the room, so you’re yards away from the person you’re trying to talk to.
Just like Beijing. Aziz is probably the most familiar Iraqi face on western TV, with his brushed-back white hair and
milk-bottle glasses. He wanted to arrange for us to visit the sites named by Tony Blair’s famous ‘dossier’ where WMD
were supposed to be. The inspection teams now want headquarters in Mosul and Basra, ‘so we’ll have to provide two more
whole units of experts and minders.’ Blix is going to visit them himself before 27th January. Re oil, he told us he told
the Japanese government ‘Listen. At present you’re buying oil on normal business terms. After this war, you’ll be buying
it on political terms.’
He does think there’s going to be a war and a devastating one.
All Iraq’s neighbours bar Kuwait and Israel are against : yet the US says Iraq is a danger to its neighbours. The only
other country worldwide supporting a unilateral war is the UK.
Yet I do wonder if it’s possible that Blair is in fact steering the difficult course, of containing Bush’s excesses by
keeping on talking to him, and to do that he goes along with the military build-up, and may not be intending actually to
go to war. The track record in Kosovo and Afghanistan would not indicate that, but if Bush had not been restrained after
Sept 11, heaven knows what he might have done. Blair gets on well with Hosni Mubarak, takes his hols in Sharm-el-Sheikh,
and is building a bridge with the Arab world with his Palestinian mtg in London. Looks like he understands that
Palestine is the issue.
Aziz recounted a list of the American and other NGOs and churches who have visited Iraq to offer support. He is
discussing ‘human shields’ with Spanish, Austrian and US Voices in the Wilderness. He wants approximately 5000 people to
stay at 100 sites: electricity plants, water purification and pumping stations, telecommunication plants, refineries
etc, so that the population doesn’t starve or die from polluted water. He agreed a better name than ‘human shields’ was
needed, possibly ‘Civilian protection’.
Aziz was very receptive to our Europe idea, he’s ready, but doubtful if the US would come. He said he’s talked to the
Belgian foreign minister, to Romano Prodi and Euro parliamentarians and hopes the EU will get more involved. Even
congressmen he knows well in Washington won’t see him.
Then he gave Greek TV an interview – a scoop because apparently he has given no interviews for four months except to Fox
TV (US).
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Sunday 5th January 2003 1pm. Manal Abdul Razak Al-Aloussi, President, General Federation of Iraq Women
She says 4,000,000 Iraqi women have been trained in civil defence, for 2 months each, to extinguish fires, carry out
first aid, shoot, and capture parachutists.
The rest of the interview with her wasn’t very interesting and reminded me of similar formalised encounters with state
women’s organisations in the Soviet Union and China.
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Sunday 5th January 2003 2pm. Lunch at the Baghdad Hunting Club, at the invitation of Dr. Al Hashimi.
The entire plate glass doors were painted with jolly fat Father Christmasses. There is FAR too much food for us
visitors, particularly meat, in a country where so many people are so hungry. I was happy to get back to my room to
write up my notes; I seem to have got the job of drafting a bullet point report of what we’ve learned, plus suggestions
to answer the question all our colleagues are asking ‘what can people DO to stop this war?’
I heard tonight that all planes to and from Jordan have been cancelled. No explanation. Quite a chill, as Jordan is our
way home on Tuesday. I imagined what it would be like not to be able to leave, and felt afraid for a bit. Then I stopped
thinking about it.
I’m getting no exercise and feel like a stuffed pig.
Conversation with Denis who from his UN experience reckons the twelve year sanctions regime has become a weapon of mass
destruction which, combined with US bombing of water purification plants and sewage systems, is estimated to have
resulted in the deaths of over 1,000,000 people, over half of whom are children. He’s VERY angry in a cool ironic Irish
sort of way. He says according to UNICEF 25% of Iraqi babies are born weighing 2kgs or less, a key indicator of famine.
One million children under 5 suffer acute or chronic malnutrition.
This evening we all feel very down, very heavy with all this suffering around us, and powerless to do anything about it.
Fotini was crying. I said it’s quite normal to feel like this because it’s the reality of the situation for millions of
people here. If we allow ourselves to feel what we feel, we’ll emerge out the other side and be able to figure out what
to do.
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Monday 6th January 2003 9am
More from Dr. Al Hashimi while waiting for General Amer El Sadi to talk about inspections. Explanation of how
Oil-for-Food Programme works:
a) Iraq sells oil and the money goes straight from the buyer to an escrow a/c at the BNP in New York under the control
of UN Committee 661.
b) Whatever necessities Iraq wants to buy, food or washing machines, it gets the best quote and signs a contract. Vendor
company asks its government for an export licence.
c) Iraq sends contact details to Committee 661.
d) Process of examination of what the goods might be used for; this can go on for 6 months.
e) When the vendor company gets the OK and ships the goods, it gets paid by Committee 661, regardless of whether the goods arrive as specified. So Iraq’s oil money can be used for imperfect or even non-existent goods, and Iraq has no recourse.
Denis, who was in charge of the programme, confirmed to me later that this is how it happens. He said that it is in
breach of international trade norms. An example he gave was of two shipments of French wheat which Iraq paid for and
which arrived so mouldy if had to be fumigated. Iraq had to just accept this and could do nothing. He sees it as part of
a massive and systematic humiliation of a people who are very proud.
Of the Iraqi oil revenues
:
- about 30% goes in compensation to Kuwait;
- about 4% goes to the UN for overheads and costs of inspections;
- about 13% goes to Kurdish north for food;
so Iraq is left with approximately 53% to spend on food and commodities for the centre and south of the country.
Hans van Sponeck, Halliday’s successor, also resigned in protest. Collective punishment of a people (for the actions of
their leader) is in breach of the Geneva Convention. The sanctions programme has put Saddam Hussein in total control of
his people through rationing, thus having the opposite effect of that intended.
***************
9.30am Dr. Sami Al-Araji, nuclear engineer and Director General of Planning at the Ministry of Industry,
Dr. Sami Al-Araji is facilitating the work of UNMOVIC inspectors, came to talk instead of General El Sadi whose brother
had had a heart attack. (Al-Araji had welcomed Andreas Papandreou to Michigan State University in1964 when he was
president of the students union – can you believe it - and was delighted to see Margarita again.) He’s quiet, efficient,
and never became rhetorical and histrionic as Al-Hashimi does. He seemed embarrassed to tell us about an incident the
previous day when there was a routine inspection near the University of Baghdad where there are 6 science centres. The
inspectors wanted to investigate one of these, but froze the entire complex meaning that nearly 3,000 people could not
move for six hours, even though their place of work was not under inspection. This meant that toddlers were left
uncollected at nursery schools. Not even the Iraqi Ambassador to the UN, there for a visit, was allowed to leave. He
later told me it was allright for me to record this because it had been on television. Iraqi people thought the
inspections would last 2-3 years, and then they could go back to normal life. It is now 12 years since the inspections
began, they are more intense than ever, and there is no end in sight.
***************
11am
Drove downtown to the Al-Zahrawi tearoom, through streets teeming with people dodging through the traffic, ambling
along on donkey carts, and selling absolutely everything on the street from TV sets to shoe laces and bright transparent
plastic files for school children. Other drivers spot the government cars a mile off and let them have their way. I’m
reminded of previous visits to China and the former Soviet Union: minders everywhere, walls with ears, and people afraid
to mention let alone criticise Saddam Hussein, who has indeed modelled himself on Stalin. Yet in the tearoom I did
manage to talk to a number of people. Painfully aware that I was the only woman in the entire place (which was packed to
watch Saddam Hussein’s Army Day speech) I dodged our minder and squeezed in to sit between a man absorbed with a hookah
pipe and an old man in a white turban. When the time seemed right I asked him if he spoke any English. “A little. Where
you from?” “England” (with some trepidation). People turned and glanced. And glanced away. But they were courteous; it
is Blair they can’t stand, and see him as a lackey of Bush, whom he supports in order to be part of the carve-up of
Iraqi oil. We talked about families, and relatives in Europe, and where he had travelled – “Bulgaria, Hungaria…” Little
glasses of sweet black tea were offered. The man with the hookah was ready to talk by this time, and I said I had found
a café in London where you could smoke rose tobacco in a hookah. I asked about his family, and he said they would not
leave Baghdad this time. “Where can we go?”
Saddam’s speech was half about religion (this is fairly new) and half about preparing his people for an attack. He looks
old and has heavy jowls. When the Iraqi emblem came up on the screen at the end, I stared; it’s a fierce eagle looking
sideways, a mirror image of the US emblem.
***************
1.00pm Meeting with Amer Mohammed Rashid, Minister for Oil At his headquarters which is about as big and grand as Shell HQ on the Thames in London. He was a deputy commander in Iraqi airforce and
looks it – well-built, fit, late 50s and sharply intelligent. After his quite sweeping general introduction, I asked for
a whole lot of facts, answered as follows:
Current world oil production per day 77 million barrels
Current OPEC oil production per day 26 million barrels
Current Iraqi oil production per day 3 million barrels, 2.3 of which are
exported, 40% to the US.
Current Iraqi potential capacity 4 - 5 million barrels
In 4-5 years, with investment, this could go up to 6 million barrels.
In 10 years, with investment, this could go up to 8 million barrels.
Proven reserves (so far) are 115 billion barrels, estimated up to 200 billion, and since Iraq is only using 1% of
reserves per year, they could go on like this for 100 years. THAT’s why the US is so interested. NB I found a map of
Iraq’s oil wells and pipelines in the hotel postcard shop.
OPEC was founded in Baghdad more than 40 years ago. Iraq wants a stable oil market and fair prices – their revenues are
90% dependent on oil. “We recognise that the US economy depends on energy and that they fear a shortage of oil as they
import 60% of their needs. By 2020 it will be more than 75%. It’s in our interest to supply the US and we have good
relations with the US oil companies, which we would like to continue. The US government could ensure stability through
adopting normal equitable relations based on international law. What we don’t like is hegemony, threats and manipulation
– this means constant crises.” For example, at the end of 1997 the US pressurised OPEC to lower prices to below $9 per
barrel, wanting to put Russia under political pressure. “At other times, when they want to invest in the Caspian Sea for
example, they push the prices high. This up and down is very destabilising for us.”
Iraq wants an oil-pricing situation which takes a long-term view and is stable. “I’ve been seven years in OPEC with the
twelve other ministers and we are all exasperated by US behaviour.”
He began to get very loquacious and started throwing his arms around. “The US and the UK are salivating because if they
could control Iraqi oil, they could control Europe, and that would be the end of Europe’s influence in the Middle East.”
And then more quietly:
“The US thinks that with so much military and economic power they can do away with wisdom.”
He was very excited at a report he had seen that morning on CNN on the question ‘Which is the country most threatening
to peace worldwide?’ To his astonishment 70% of the American respondents answered that it was the US, only 20% said it
was the Axis of Evil countries, and 10% said it was Saudi Arabia. He expected that CNN would alter those results as soon
as they woke up. He had a conspiracy theory about how the Zionists have propelled Tony Bair into the leadership of the
Labour Party, and that there are strong links between Israel and the Labour Party.
The emotions are so deep that people get carried away and go over the top.
When asked whether the Iraqis have taken extra measures to protect their oil fields (we had heard a rumour that the
wells have been heavily mined) he said “Make your own assumptions.”
He concluded “Iraq has 7000 years of civilisation. The US has only a few hundred years of …history. They cannot
understand the minds of people who resist. Even kings begged us to give in to the US last time… in 1998 Clinton fired
350 cruise missiles at us and still we didn’t collapse…The US is now a raging bull in a china shop. He’ll find concrete
blocks and break his head.”
“Clinton said one palace of Saddam Hussein was the size of Washington. Blair said it was the size of Paris. This
information must have come from intelligence sources! Kofi Annan said let’s check, sent surveyors, and checked
parameters of all 9 presidential sites. The total equalled one percent of the Washington area. How could Clinton make
such a mistake?”
We reeled back to the hotel at 3pm and I’m relieved that no other appointments have been made, allowing me to digest
some of this and continue the report. I excused myself from dinner because this is just too much FOOD.
***************
Tuesday 7th January 9am. Al-Dawrah Foot and Mouth Vaccine Institute
I was pretty reluctant to trail out here, thinking it would be a PR exercise, but I’m glad I came. Even if astonished at
my govt.
We went into the buildings, where there was nothing except wreckage. Great stainless steel pipes sticking out of walls
and ending in twisted metal. Manuals lying in heaps of dust. Gutted cylinders big enough to walk through. Cameras
everywhere pointing in all directions. Ventilation systems concreted up so no chemical or biological work could take
place here.
Al-Araji said that in 1982 they began production of 12 million triple vaccines for Foot and Mouth as well as 36 million
vaccines for each different type of virus. Since 1994 the site has been inspected or visited 60 times, it has been
closed since 1995, when all the equipment was destroyed or removed and the cameras were connected to the former UNSCOM
Monitoring Centre in Baghdad. So why, even if it was once producing botulinium toxin, (which Al-Araji didn’t say) was it still high on the list in the UK Government dossier (published September 2002) of biological weapons sites?
Why did UNMOVIC come here on their second day in Iraq? The place was wrecked and clearly had been for years.
After this Zeyneb, Fotini and I made a bee-line for the Baghdad Museum. They have a collection of figurines from 5,000 –
6,000 BC of delightful little goddesses, fat-hipped icons of fertility from the thousands of years when the female was
in balance with the male in this part of the world, and was worshipped. We saw the tablets on which Hammurabi, who ruled
Babylon in 1750 BC, caused to be inscribed the first records of the stonemasons who built the great monuments of
Mesopotamia, and how much each had been paid. They had sewage systems then, and irrigation, intricately carved pillars
and enormous stone frescoes of processions of dignitaries with delicately folded hands, not to mention an elaborate code
of laws, when we were running around with woad on our faces and had just thought of Stonehenge.
We wanted to see Queen Shebad, the famous ivory and gold statue of the exquisite young woman with a crown of gold stars
who reigned here hundreds of years before Christ and looks so modern she could be on the cover of Vogue. But she was in
storage, to be protected from the bombing perhaps or from the ‘disappearances’ from the museum which took place in the
chaos of 1991. Zeyneb, who had visited the museum in 1978, was desolate over the state of the place – barely lit, dusty,
empty. She said that 25 years ago it was packed and thriving and full of beauty, that when you walked up the streets of
Baghdad you were almost overcome by the smell of roses. I suddenly realised that this is what is missing in Baghdad -
beauty. There are no fountains or parks, no flowers and few trees. Nothing much that is natural, gentle, luscious or
soft. Except the stunning smiles.
Checking out of the hotel took a long time, because (as we knew) you can’t pay by credit card; neither can you pay with
cash dollars. You have to get your bill from the cashier, then go to the bank to change enough dollars to dinar, and
bring a sack to take them to the cashier again.
We are relieved to learn that the planes to Amman are flying again, although of course 2 days’ worth of passengers are
now on our plane. In the departure lounge at the airport and on the plane we continue to develop ideas, mainly around
the potential role of the Arab states, the EU and what can be done to awaken the British, US and European publics to
what they could do to prevent a war and what life is like for Iraqis. My draft gets refined by the others; I’ll finish
it on the plane to London and then email to NGOs worldwide. Never did get a Saddam joke.
In a final mtg with Al-Hashimi we realise we’ve seen everyone we wanted to see except the Minister for Information; I
especially wanted to see him because I want his clearance to make some short films to go before or after the news on BBC
or Ch 4, showing what life is like here for ordinary Iraqis. Al-Hashimi says that’ll be no problem, just send the
proposal. I realise he has given us exceptional access; I heard that journalists have been waiting 6 weeks to get 15
minutes with Tariq Aziz. In a few short days we’ve covered a lot of ground and this trip has been graced by much good
fortune. Many people literally all over the world were carrying us in their hearts.
Thank you.
******** ENDS ********
AUTHOR NOTE - Dr Scilla Elworthy is director of the Oxford Research Group, established in 1982 to research decision
making on weapons of mass destruction. Together withPaul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at the University of
Bradford, Dr Elworthy has proposed a peaceful solution to the Iraq Crisis. This solution is described here... Iraq: A Way Out?