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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (103813)	7/2/2003 11:19:30 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

Saddam still haunts Iraqi capital ________________________ By Tarik Kafala BBC News Online Published: 2003/07/01 15:21:52 GMT Baghdad is a city still haunted by the former Iraqi leader. Where is Saddam Hussein? It's the question on everyone's mind. He could be dead, but if you ask Iraqis, to the man or woman they tell you that Saddam Hussein is in hiding in Baghdad. Then they look over their shoulder nervously. Coalition officials blame the increasing attacks against US and UK forces on "Saddam loyalists" or Baathists. The possibility that the former Iraqi leader is somehow organising these attacks has also been raised. Analysts, though, argue that the attacks are just as likely to result from local grievances or the beginnings of some kind of Iraqi resistance to the occupation. It's an extraordinary thought - that the former Iraqi leader and his two sons might be skulking about the capital city - more than 11 weeks after his statue was so dramatically pulled down in central Baghdad - organising a fight-back. The statues and murals have mostly gone, pulled down, vandalised or just covered up, but Saddam Hussein's presence, or the absence of any solid information on his fate, hangs heavy over the city. Rumours A shopkeeper told me that the former Iraqi leader had recently stayed in a hotel in Hindiya, a middle-class residential area just south of the city centre, up against the River Tigris. No, he wasn't there any more. No, he couldn't remember the name of the hotel. Baghdadis are convinced that below their city is a warren of tunnels, linking hundreds of safe houses. Saddam Hussein and his entourage, residents say, can come and go as they please. Sightings of the former leader since the end of the war have been reported, and frustrated US troops have received a number of fruitless tip-offs. People in Baghdad are also convinced that messages attributed to the former president are authentic. An Arabic newspaper in London in June received what it said was a fax from Saddam Hussein. The message called on Iraqis to expel anyone who supported the US-led invasion. The echoes of Osama Bin Laden's mysterious disappearance must be haunting US officials. Captured Baathists Although Saddam Hussein's whereabouts remain a mystery, there has been a steady stream of captures and surrenders of senior old regime figures. The most senior of these, Saddam Hussein's presidential secretary Abid Hamid Mahmoud al-Tikriti, was captured in mid-June. None of these captures or surrenders has produced any serious leads on the location of Saddam Hussein and his sons. American officials and soldiers in Iraq will tell you that the Iraqi leader can only be in Syria or Iran - coincidentally the two countries bordering Iraq that are still hostile to the US and its plans in the region. Syria has said that it will not harbour any senior regime figures. Iran insists it will try any senior Iraqi figures that fall into its hands for war crimes relating to the 10-year war the two countries fought. City in chaos The whole question of where Saddam Hussein and his sons are would matter far less if the occupation was going well. In Baghdad in particular, normal life still seems a long way off. The return of basic services has been very slow - electricity and water are still regularly interrupted, hospitals and schools are only very slowly reopening. But the main problem is security. After dark, the streets of the city are given up to US troops, armed criminals and looters. After 11pm, when the curfew starts, US troops can shoot on sight. Those looters that are captured were until recently held overnight and released the following morning. The US forces are simply not equipped or willing to hold large numbers of criminals. The Iraqi courts that finally opened up at the beginning of this week will have a massive task on their hands. There is a police force in the capital, but it is hard to spot. Even during daylight, gunpoint car-jacking and shootings are not unknown. Some businesses open Though US soldiers guard many of the main intersections, large swathes of the city are lawless. During the day, some shops are open for business, but often heavy shutters are down to protect shop fronts. One small hotel that was actually taking guests had bricked up its entire street level frontage except for the main door. Two armed guards are stationed in front of the hotel day and night. Back in the middle-class Hindiya area, a large and prosperous family restaurant is open for business. Apart from some boarding where a floor-to-ceiling window had been shattered, the restaurant is unscathed. Food is plentiful and excellent. The 20 or so Iraqi customers in a room that could hold 200 are treated like long-lost family. Service is a little rushed though. Customers don't want to linger, making sure they are back home safely before the sun starts to set just after 8pm. BBC News Online's Tarik Kafala has just returned from Iraq where he carried out a study of the Iraqi media for the BBC World Service Trust. Story from BBC NEWS: news.bbc.co.uk Published: 2003/07/01 15:21:52 GMT