Iraq Allies Speak Against Sanctions

By LEON BARKHO
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Friends are lining up behind once-isolated
Iraq — from grass-roots Americans opposed to U.S. policies to the
Venezuelan president, who followed up a recent visit with a plea to
the world Saturday to take note of the suffering here.

The United States remains firmly opposed to any change in the way
the world treats President Saddam Hussein and his government.
But the official Iraqi press is predicting that more world leaders will
follow Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who on Thursday
became the first head of state to visit Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War.

``Who is going to be the next hero?'' Babel, Iraq's most influential
newspaper, declared in a front-page editorial Saturday. Babel is
owned by Saddam's son, Odai.

Indonesia, the stop after Iraq for Chavez on a tour of fellow
members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries,
was quick to respond. Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid
said after meeting Chavez that he would visit Baghdad in the
coming months and wanted U.N. sanctions against Iraq ended.

The harsh sanctions have crippled the country's economy and
reduced many to living on meager food rations, drinking unsafe
water and coping with uncertain electricity supplies. Chavez said in
Indonesia on Saturday that the sanctions, which were imposed to
punish Iraq for invading Kuwait in 1990, are unjust and responsible
for the deaths of Iraqi children.

Demonstrations against the sanctions were held this month in front
of the White House, and six American members of an anti-
sanctions group are now living with poor families in the southern
Iraqi city of Basra to experience life under sanctions.

But the protests are not confined to grass-roots activists.

Maverick leaders with a record of bucking the U.S. line on foreign
policy are not hard to find. Cuba's Fidel Castro and Yugoslavia's
Slobodan Milosevic are even closer to Saddam than Chavez.
Sudan's Omar el-Bashir and Libya's Col. Moammar Gadhafi have
both expressed a desire to visit Baghdad.

Despite growing criticism of the sanctions — even from one-time
proponents like former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter — the
United States remains firm that they are still necessary to contain
Saddam. The U.S. position is backed by Britain and others who
blame Saddam for the plight of Iraqis, arguing that if he would
cooperate with the United Nations by renouncing nuclear and
chemical weapons, the sanctions and his people's suffering would
end.

Two former chief U.N. weapons inspectors, Richard Butler and Rolf
Ekeus, have said they believe Saddam almost certainly has
continued to pursue an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
And as long as Washington supports the sanctions, they are
unlikely to be lifted.

So far, Washington's only compromise is to support a December
U.N. resolution promising to consider suspending sanctions for
renewable four-month periods. The suspensions would be
considered if Iraq cooperates with the international effort to strip it
of weapons of mass destruction.

In Kuwait on Saturday, a Kuwait University political science
professor described Chavez's visit to Iraq and any visit by the
Indonesian president as ``grave mistakes,'' but he dismissed their
political significance.

The visits ``will not have strong political effects because Venezuela
and Indonesia are not superpowers and have no influence in the
area,'' Abdullah Sahar said. He said Kuwaiti government officials
have remained silent about Chavez's visit because ``they don't
want to become part of the media frenzy surrounding it.''

In Iraq, Saddam said Chavez's visit was proof that the country was
not completely at the mercy of U.S. military and diplomatic might.

``You know that we in Iraq do not fear America or anyone dealing
with it,'' al-Jumhouriya, a government newspaper, quoted Saddam
as telling Chavez.