Al-Ahram Weekly
17 - 23 August 2000
Issue No. 495
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 Issues navigation Current Issue Previous Issue Back Issues
 
Front Page
 Menue
  
 
  SEARCH
 

Ten years of solitude

By Salah Hemeid

Just one day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ended a landmark visit to Baghdad and his impassioned plea for the world to take notice of the plight of the Iraqi people caused by the 10-year UN sanctions, American and British warplanes attacked positions in southern Iraq ending a six-week lull in the ongoing aerial war over Iraq's skies.

Chavez arrived in Iraq on 10 August, the first visit by a foreign head of state since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, as part of a tour of OPEC nations to prepare for a summit, which he plans to host in Caracas next month to work out a strategy for the world's oil cartel's effort to stabilise the market.

Combative and defiant the Iraqi media expressed great delight over the Chavez visit, which they viewed as a major success for Iraq's strategy to "erode" the American-led international isolation imposed on the country since the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. In addition to the red carpet he threw to Chavez, President Saddam Hussein personally drove his guest around in Baghdad's streets, trying to show the Venezuelan leader the impact of the UN economic sanctions on his people. But, most importantly, Hussein wanted to show his defiance to the US spying planes flying over Iraq, which sometimes monitor his movements.

And the gesture went down well. "We are very happy to be in Baghdad, to smell the scent of history and to walk on the bank of the Tigris River," Chavez told a news conference after his meeting with Hussein. He said he was received warmly by Hussein, who "honoured" him by driving him around Baghdad. "Imagine, he took me on a ride in Baghdad while he was driving the car," Chavez said through an interpreter. "I extend my deep gratitude to him for the warm welcome he gave us."

But by defying Washington's plea not to make the trip and crossing the border into Iraq, Chavez also crossed a symbolic line in the sand drawn by the US that has been ostracising the Iraqi regime for 10 years. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "We do think it's a rather dubious distinction to be the first democratically elected head of state to go meet the dictator of Iraq." He added, "In any contact with Iraqi officials we would expect Venezuelan officials to make clear that the roots of the current confrontation with Iraq are Baghdad's nine-year-long refusal to meet its international obligations."

Indeed, Chavez did exactly the opposite and lambasted the continuation of the US-led devastating economic embargo on Iraq. "Who has the right to really have an innocent child die there?" Chavez said in an emotional plea in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, his next stop after Baghdad. "Let God have pity on the souls of those who act that way," he said. He added that his son, who is travelling with him on the tour, visited a mosque in Baghdad and saw a naked child dying from cancer. "They don't have the medical drugs they need to treat him," he said. Hearing this plea, Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid said after meeting Chavez that he would visit Baghdad in the coming months and wanted sanctions against Iraq terminated. "I share President Chavez's sentiments about the Iraqi people," he said. "Because of that, Indonesia would like to see the blockade on Iraq to be lifted soon," he said.

By joining other high-profile critics of the sanctions, the Venezuelan and Indonesian leaders have given Iraq new fodder to step up its censure of its Arab neighbours for doing nothing to try to defy or even ease the sanctions. In fact, Iraq even argues that some Arabs have not only been indifferent to the extreme sufferings of its people but they also take part in prolonging that suffering through helping the United States maintain the blockade, the political isolation and even the military aggression against the Iraqi people. When American and British warplanes attacked what Baghdad claimed to be civilian warehouses on Saturday and Sunday, Iraqi officials quickly put the blame on Saudi Arabia and Kuwait whom they criticised for allowing the Western planes to use their airbases to launch attacks against Iraq.

Although both countries have denied the Iraqi claims, the latest flurry of accusations and counter accusations has again raised tension in the region and highlighted the never-ending crisis in the Gulf, which was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. On 8 August, while marking "Victory Day," the 12th anniversary of the end of the Iran-Iraq war, President Hussein issued some thinly-veiled threats against Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He said that the two countries were "traitors" because they had allowed the United States and Britain to use their territory to launch air strikes on Iraq. In addition, Hussein said, "they have sold off all that was possible, their values and the resources of their peoples, to the United States and Zionism, and turned into their agents."

Kuwaiti and Gulf officials noted that Hussein's speech followed charges carried in Babil, the newspaper run by his son Uday, two days earlier, in which it warned that Kuwait should not forget the invasion of its country 10 years earlier. "We tell the dwarfs: don't play near the lion and try to find a shelter or a sand dune to hide your rotten heads under because the date of 2 August, 1990 is still alive in memory." As Kuwaitis decried the Iraqi threats and urged Arabs and the international community to condemn the Baghdad government's behaviour, the northern Gulf region seems to witness another round of the propaganda war for the minds and hearts of the world, which has so far done little to resolve the underlying problems which triggered the crisis.

Related stories:
Hard to believe 3 - 9 August 2000
Remembering the occupation 3 - 9 August 2000
Down-loading death 3 - 9 August 2000

 

   Top of page
Front Page