http://www.dawn.com/2001/02/26/int14.htm

10 YEARS ON, IRAQIS SHRUG OFF EMBARGO
by Howard Schneider
Dawn, 26th February

BASRA (Iraq): Capt Ajadi Abbass began his discussion of the Umm Qassr 
port
by scanning a blackboard list of the facility's 21 berths. Pointing to 
those
still blocked by vessels sunk in the harbour during the Persian Gulf 
War a
decade ago , he said: "Number 13, there is a wreck. Number 14, wreck, 
15
wreck, 18 wreck, 21 wreck." Then he added firmly, "Whatever comes in, 
it is
not enough for the Iraqi people."

But when questioned about the cargo arrival charts decorating his 
office
wall, he offered the rest of the story: Shipments through the critical 
port
that gives Iraq access to the northern end of the Persian Gulf have 
returned
to pre-war levels, as much as 3,500 tons per day. With nine ships at 
anchor
waiting for a space to unload, Abbass's crews are working at capacity.

In Iraq, the US-led effort to organize a black-and-white world of 
concerted
cooperation against a shunned government has collapsed into a landscape 
of
grey. Although reliable statistics are hard to come by, a visitor sees 
a
country in which international cooperation on the boycott increasingly 
mixes
with open sanctions-busting, and goods arrive daily despite the UN 
embargo
imposed after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

As a result, according to conversations here, in Baghdad and in other 
Arab
capitals, the target of one of the world's toughest embargoes feels it 
is
becoming richer, stronger and politically more accepted instead of 
weaker,
more isolated and closer to compromise.

"In 1999 and 2000, openness on Iraq has increased and its political,
economic and trade relations have improved with many countries," Deputy
Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told reporters on Thursday in Baghdad.

"The government of the US is always talking, blah, blah, blah, 
democracy,
human rights, Iraq, Saddam, Iraq, Saddam," Abbass said, referring to
President Saddam Hussein. "The people of Iraq will always be with 
Saddam. We
don't want anyone to interfere."

Segments of Iraqi society, particularly those associated with the
government, the military or the ruling Baath party, enjoy luxury cars,
state-of-the-art, 33-inch flat-screen televisions and tony art 
receptions.
The once ambitious middle class, meanwhile, also measures progress, but 
in
terms of more affordable and plentiful food.

"It's a two-level society," said Ruggero Pierantoni, an Italian museum
curator who came to Baghdad to arrange a cultural exchange. He observed 
an
early evening crowd at the Baghdad Art Gallery and remarked, "If you 
see
this, you have no idea of the sanctions."

In an effort to ease the suffering of ordinary people, the UN set up an
oil-for-food programme that allows Iraq to sell up to two million 
barrels of
oil a day. But the programme restricts use of the revenue to 
humanitarian
supplies and docks a portion to pay reparations to Kuwait. With oil 
prices
having risen sharply in recent months, to about $25 a barrel, that 
programme
brings in more revenue than ever.

Top officials, Saddam family members and other well-connected Iraqis 
also
have benefited from a growing grey-market trade outside UN controls. Up 
to
150,000 barrels of oil a day have been moving through a pipeline to 
Syria,
industry analysts report, and almost as much by truck to Turkey. 
Moreover,
Iraq has begun charging petroleum companies a 25- to 30-cent surcharge 
on
crude lifted under the oil-for-food programme, with money from that
operation also free of UN supervision.

As Colin L. Powell begins his first tour of the Middle East as 
secretary of
state, he will face increasing international pressure to consider 
whether
the US's stated aim of removing Saddam from power and its insistence on
maintaining the sanctions 10 years after the war are still realistic.

But no long-term resolution of Iraq's role in the Middle East is in 
sight.
That is troubling for many Arab states, whose leaders say the isolation 
of
such a large, oil-producing nation makes the Arab world weaker and that 
the
poverty of many of Iraq's more than 20 million people is an insult.

The US' aim of "regime change," as set by the Clinton administration, 
is
often ridiculed, not only on the streets of Iraq, but by regional 
diplomats
and officials, including some Americans, who see Hussein as entrenched 
as
ever. Key participants in the Gulf War coalition that ousted Iraq from
Kuwait, such as Egypt, say they no longer view Iraq as a threat. The 
major
US bombing raid on Feb 16 was criticized even by Saudi Arabia, which 
has
allowed US planes and troops on its soil since the Gulf War.

At Saddam Hall one recent night, a festive crowd gathered to watch a
regional basketball tournament staged in honour of the Arab fight for 
Al
Quds. "Guilty, guilty," the audience jeered when a member of the Iraqi 
Air
Defence team missed a free throw. Between quarters, the chief 
cheerleader
made a show of picking out a foreigner, offering a Pepsi and kisses on 
both
cheeks. "The people of Iraq and the people of the US are friends," he
hollered to the crowd's approval. "But your government, the rockets. So 
many
babies dead. Why?"  Dawn/LATS-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post.