The Hindu : Simmering anger

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 21, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Simmering anger

Anger against the Americans is the dominant mood, says Atul Aneja who toured Iraq.

AN OVERRIDING antagonism towards the American occupation is perceptible on the streets of Baghdad, and even among Saddam Hussein's detractors. Hashim, a Shia taxi driver who claims he was tortured (he displays scars on his arms as `proof') by the Ba'athist regime, says that if Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the top Shia leader in Iraq, tells him to he will take on the Americans.

Abdul, a tea vendor, says Americans "are inseparable from Israelis, the tormentors of the Arab Palestinians" with whom he shares a bond. "I was opposed to Mr. Hussein, but the way the Jewish Americans captured him, I cannot accept it," he adds.

Anger and solidarity are evident even in impoverished strongholds of Shias, whom the Americans thought of as their natural allies when they invaded Iraq. As the Ba'athists had suppressed the Shias, the theory went, and the Shias had rebelled after the first Gulf war, the Americans expected the Shias to welcome them as liberators after the war. But the sprawling Shia-dominated Sadr city, formerly called Saddam city, has been speaking in a different language — of unity and defiance.

The graffiti on the walls in this district is illustrative. "Sunnis and Shias are like the Tigris and the Euphrates"[the two rivers that have their confluence in southern Iraq], said a banner, drenched in the overnight rain, that was pinned on the walls of a bombed-out food distribution warehouse.

Many other banners exhorted the Iraqis to fight for the Palestinian cause and some were attributed to Hizbollah, the militant Shia group, based in Lebanon.

Saddam Hussein's capture has stirred emotions in the Arab world, particularly among the Palestinians. Their feelings find expression in the Palestinian media. For most Palestinians, Saddam, who had "dared" fire Scud missiles deep into the Israeli mainland during the first Gulf War, was a symbol of defiance against the Israeli-U.S. combine.

The shock and disbelief over Saddam's capture has triggered a spate of conspiracy theories. A large number of Iraqis believe that he was either gassed or drugged before he was captured. "Saddam Hussein is, we know, proud and defiant. He gave in so easily because he was either drugged or gassed before his capture," says Abdul Najim, a shop owner in Baghdad. And Saddam's daughter, Ragadh, who lives in Jordan, has aired the theory that he was gassed and stunned before his capture. Her claim that her father's mental faculties were numbed before his arrest made it to the front page of many Iraqi Arab dailies.

Saddam's supporters flooded the streets of Falujah and Ramadi, within 60 km west of the Iraqi capital, soon after his capture. In Falujah, crowds chanting "We defend Saddam with our souls," took over the mayor's office on Monday, the day after Saddam's detention was announced. The next day, the U.S. military surrounded the building with armoured personnel carriers and tanks, while helicopters kept vigil. Saddam supporters in Falujah told this correspondent that the Americans had "handpicked" and installed an uneducated person — he had not finished high school — as mayor. Many Falujah residents now fear American discrimination.

There is also a feeling that the ranks of the Iraqi resistance may swell. "With little opportunity to offer, many young men may now be driven to take up weapons against the Americans," says Abdul Rahman, who runs a transport company. The walls were full of slogans against the Americans.

In Ramadi, the U.S. troops resorted to heavy firing and killed three protesters and wounded as many, after a crowd of about 750 people showed up in support of Saddam. In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown north of Baghdad, U.S. officers said a roadside bomb wounded three soldiers on Monday. The town of Sammara to the north of Baghdad has remained restive and the U.S. military command has said that it had launched a major offensive against resistance strongholds there.

The northern Iraqi city of Mosul remains a major flashpoint. Hundreds marched in the streets, waving bank notes bearing Saddam Hussein's picture on Tuesday, while the American troops fired warning shots. The demonstration was dispersed after considerable violence, but the Mosul university campus continues to be restive. The U.S. forces have now reportedly closed three bridges over the Tigris, which connect Mosul with the rest of Iraq and encircled the university campus. Stiffening the standoff, the students, in turn, have declared a weeklong general strike.

The intelligentsia's response to Saddam's capture has been varied. Rommel Moushi of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM) acknowledged that the Americans had deliberately chosen to humiliate Saddam on television and its purpose was to send a message to the entire world, especially the region. The intention was to announce the end of the era of pan-Arab leaders, which had begun with Nasser of Egypt, he said.

Others felt that the stage was now set for an increasingly fragmented Arab world to receive "American style democracy." Senior functionaries of the Iraq Communist Party are of the view that the anti-American sentiment is extremely fierce. Sublir Al-Jumaily, who heads the foreign relations cell of the party, said "a majority of the Iraqis are opposed to the U.S. occupation. There are differences though on how to end American presence in the country."

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