Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 5, 1991 TAG: 9103050417
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Associated Press/ and The New York Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
More and more Baghdadis, in private conversations with foreign journalists, are bluntly criticizing Saddam's government, something they would not have dared do before. But that was before Iraq's defeat in the Persian Gulf War.
"We don't want Saddam Hussein," a young man whispered to a Western reporter last week as another nearby Iraqi defended Saddam - a defense that was translated into English by a government official.
"We all know we got nothing" from the war over Kuwait, said a shopkeeper, dismissing government claims of at least a moral victory over the allies. "Now we have to think about the government, maybe seriously."
Some Iraqis have reported seeing huge murals of Saddam defaced in the capital. But reporters who have toured parts of Baghdad and nearby cities in recent days saw no such displays of opposition.
News of those killed and wounded in the war is only just beginning to reach the public as soldiers return from the front. For most Baghdadis, the accounts from soldiers are the first word of the crushing defeat their army suffered.
The war over Kuwait, the second waged at Saddam's behest in a decade, was widely unpopular in Iraq, and some Iraqis blame Saddam for the war's devastation.
"It's terrible. It's all black now" said a man on a Baghdad street corner. "It all depends on one man."
He said "none of this would have happened" if Saddam had pulled Iraqi troops from Kuwait by Jan. 15, the deadline imposed by the U.N. Security Council. The man, like other Iraqis who spoke out against Saddam, insisted on anonymity.
In past years, few Iraqis would venture such opinions even privately to reporters, caution prompted by the severe punishments meted out by the government against dissidents.
Most Iraqis still defend the regime in conversations with foreigners, discussions that usually are conducted with government officials and crowds of people listening in.
But even those who claim an Iraqi victory seem ambivalent.
"What Iraq has achieved is that the war is over and we're safe," said Abdul-Kadhim Hamad, 47, a second-hand-goods seller.
He said the war exposed "the real face" of America's leaders.
That sentiment was echoed by many other Iraqis, who say the allied offensive was aimed more at destroying Iraq than at liberating Kuwait.
While Saddam's army was defeated, he still commands a huge and feared security system and the Baath Arab Socialist Party, which has loyalists in every neighborhood.
There have been indications, however, of more broad-based dissent outside the capital. And Saddam faces a very real enemy to the east - Iran.
Reporters in Baghdad have heard reliable reports of several small demonstrations against Saddam recently in the Shiite cities of Diwaniya, Najaf and Kadhimiya. On Monday, the official Iranian media reported violent unrest in southern Iraq, notably in Basra, where Republican Guard units were said to be battling opponents of Saddam.
Jordan's Crown Prince Hassan said some people who took part in protests Sunday carried pro-Iranian banners.
Iran, an overwhelmingly Shiite nation, was Saddam's enemy in an eight-year war that ended in 1988. During that war, Tehran exhorted Shiites - who make up about 55 percent of Iraq's 17 million people - to rise up against Saddam, a Sunni.
Iraqi Shiites, however, remained loyal to Saddam, won over by a combination of lavish spending, fear and a dislike of the fundamentalist regime in Tehran.
by CNB