http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2000/495/re4.htm
Al-Ahram Weekly
17 - 23 August 2000
Issue No. 495

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.
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