Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 28, 1991 TAG: 9102280359
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KUWAIT CITY LENGTH: Medium
The joy and warmth of Kuwait recalled the old newsreels of liberated Paris, but in vivid Kuwaiti colors: red, green, black and white.
"Send my regards to Mr. Bush and to the American army and my love to the American peoples," Mohammed Ali Kandari told reporters as their jeep was engulfed in a chanting, flag-waving throng.
Ignoring muffled artillery and machine-gun fire near the International Airport, where U.S. Marines had fought back diehard Iraqi resisters, they paraded in cars on Kuwait City's broad avenue.
Nearly seven months under Iraqi occupation had come to an end.
At corners and crossroads, volunteer guards with mixed weaponry searched cars for escaping Iraqis. Mostly, they joked with motorists and pounded on hoods enthusiastically.
Children made V signs with tiny fingers as laughing mothers held them out of car windows. On street corners, women in black veils and robes ululated and chanted. Youths fired skyrockets.
Someone had painted "Saddam" across a donkey. Kids waved a flag atop a burned-out tank.
Most seemed unbothered by the shambles of war.
Electricity was cut, with power lines a tangle. There was no water or public services. Buildings were shattered, ransacked and booby trapped.
"We lived like animals," said Ibrahim Fedel, a middle-aged Kuwaiti in a boisterous crowd. "No food, no water, no electricity, anything. Last week, we are all scared to go out."
He added, with a broad grin: "Now I am feeling very well. This is my country. I have freedom now."
Lalaine Pasco said: "We are just out walking in the streets. Before we never went out. Iraqis were here, maybe they catch us. We were afraid, always."
Kuwait's capital city showed deep scars of Saddam Hussein's campaign to turn the glittering little emirate back into a Persian Gulf backwater.
An employee at the Kuwait International Hotel apologized for the pile of junk that had been furniture. "The Iraqis," he explained, with a slight shudder.
Typical of many buildings, it was stripped of food and fittings by departing Iraqis. Only a few crumpled packages of pasta lay on the kitchen floor.
Near the Saudi border, the main road from Saudi Arabia is almost intact. But war is evident from the charred hulks of tanks that flank the highway and from columns of smoke rising from oilfield fires.
With the Iraqis barely gone, Kuwaitis began clearing away the mess, hoping for a quick restoration of their old life.
"Everything will be started again OK," said Mohammed Abdullah, an Egyptian electrical plant employee who stayed on when most foreign workers fled. "We are very, very happy."
by CNB