Meet Saddam Hussein - the schoolboy

Meet Saddam Hussein - the schoolboy

By Alan Quartly BBC, Moscow

Saddam Hussein had just come home from playing outside when I called him. He'd had the day off from school, so he was in a good mood.

"The Americans want to attack Iraq without the permission of the UN. I don't think war will solve the problem. Saddam Hussein is stronger and will beat them," he told me down a crackling phone line.

Yet this self-confident young man was not the Iraqi leader, but an 11-year-old schoolboy from the city of Makhachkala in Dagestan, the Russian republic on the coast of the Caspian Sea.

The 11-year old Saddam Hussein says he admires his famous namesake

Born in July 1991 at the end of the last US-led operation against Iraq, Saddam Hussein Andalayev will be 12 this year.

His father Surkhai, a long-distance lorry driver, was adamant that his son should be named after the Iraqi leader.

While his wife Marziyat was pregnant, he told her if their baby was a boy, he would be called Saddam.

"Everyone in my family liked the idea," said Marziyat. "While I was pregnant, I thought, that's unusual, it's not one of our names. How will we pronounce it?

I like the name Saddam because if I ever go to Iraq, everyone will respect me

Saddam Hussein, aged 11

"What kind of name is it? But everyone liked it - you could say the whole family bowed down in front of Saddam Hussein."

Little Saddam Hussein Andalayev is a keen swimmer, like his famous namesake, who once made a legendary escape by swimming across the River Tigris after participating in a failed coup attempt in Iraq in 1959.

He is an extremely well-informed 11-year-old, and has been watching all the recent news about Iraq on the television news.

"They say he has weapons of mass destruction, but I don't believe it," said Saddam from his home in Makhachkala.

"I think he's courageous. I like the name Saddam because if I ever go to Iraq, everyone will respect me."

The search for more Saddams

In Dagestan it turns out Saddam is not an unusual name.

Dagstanis like the name Saddam Hussein - they think it's beautiful

Ruslan Gusarov, journalist

An investigation carried out by Ruslan Gusarov, the local reporter for Moscow's NTV television, revealed that at least 25 little boys in the republic are named after Saddam Hussein.

Most were born during or shortly after 1991's Desert Storm campaign.

Ruslan tracked down and interviewed boys called Saddam in various locations in Dagestan, including a remote village on the border with Chechnya. In Makhachkala he discovered a cafe named after Saddam.

With war looming again in the Gulf, Ruslan says sympathy for the Iraqi leader will rise.

"If war starts, they'll be naming little boys Saddam again", he said. "They think the US is an aggressor, an invader.

"It's only interested in Iraqi oil, that's why they're fighting the war. Dagestanis are Muslim, like the people of Iraq. They like the name Saddam Hussein - they think it's beautiful. And they like Saddam as a leader."

Some Dagestanis have gone further than naming their children after the Iraqi leader.

According to some reports, the local MP has said up to 8,000 armed volunteers from the republic are prepared to go and fight for Iraq.

Since calling his son Saddam Hussein, Surkhai Andalayev has even managed to travel to Iraq. His job as a lorry driver has taken him there three times in recent years.

And, he said, he's always been very well received when he tells the people his son is called Saddam!