Testing the mood in Iraq

Anti-American sentiment is muted for once in Iraq

By Barbara Plett in Iraq

The vagrant woman was the most interesting person at the demonstration. I watched her closely as I mechanically followed the marchers, microphone slung over my arm to record their familiar chants.

A black dress flapped around her thin legs. It was covered with a soiled, white undershirt and decorated with a dusty handbag, which hung down her back anchored by a strap that ran around her forehead and through silver grey hair twisted into oily knots.

Occasionally she would stop the conversation she was having with herself, look at the demonstrators with wide, red rimmed eyes, and chuckle. Once she even put a hand on her hip and struck a pose.

The Arab students at the protest paid no attention.

Iraq attack fears

They had been called up to show their support for the Palestinian intifadah. First came the Palestinians, chanting about sacred land and the power of stones. Then the Syrians in disciplined rows, the Tunisians tight-lipped and serious, the Somalis beautiful and straggling at the rear.

The protest was called to support the Palestinian intifada

The Sudanese strolled along chatting casually until they reached the UN headquarters, where they suddenly became sweaty, angry flag burners shouting: "Down, down USA."

They'd had lots of practice since 1998. I remembered that chant echoing through Khartoum after a US missile struck the medicine factory allegedly connected to chemical weapons and to Osama Bin Laden.

Now it's Osama Bin Laden again, more strikes expected, and this time it was Iraq that might be in the line of fire. It was the topic on everyone's mind, but no one could talk about it.

Our government minders would not allow us to sound out public opinion. They had been given strict instructions to prevent any display of anti-American sentiment. Baghdad didn't want to encourage the hawks in Washington that were lobbying to put it on the list of targets.

Intifada

It wasn't clear to me why the Sudanese could burn American flags when I couldn't even ask a question about America, but of course, it was clear to the minder: These are other Arabs, he emphasised, not Iraqis.

Hmm, yes of course, an obvious distinction.

I was allowed to ask questions about the intifadah, so I soldiered on. "What has the intifadah achieved, do you think it has affected events, in the wider world," I askedy.

One Jordanian student took the bait. "People have been distracted from the intifadah since the US attacks," he said. "I think Israel carried them out."

The people were supposed to keep quiet but curiously the authorities exercised no such restraint.

Of course they were quick to deny any link, especially the reports of alleged meetings between Iraqi intelligence officers and Osama's people But they pounded home their controversial message.

Accusations

It is not Iraq that carries out terrorism, says Saddam Hussein.

It's Israel and the United States - military operations against the Palestinians, American warplanes that bomb Iraqi targets in air exclusion zones.

These, he said, were actions outside international law.

Iraq was notably the only Arab country that did not initially condemn the attacks. That didn't go down well in Washington at all. But the Iraqi president refused to budge.

To send condolences would be hypocritical when America was waging war on Iraq, he said, and we are not hypocrites.

The Americans need advice more than condolences, one of his deputies added. That is why we stressed it was time for them to rethink their foreign policy, which is what led to the New York attacks, he said.

All perfectly logical from an Iraqi point of view, and, it has to be said, in many parts of the Arab world. In fact, the words were probably directed at the Arab world, but not exactly designed to deflect angry attention from across the ocean.

The authorities continued to direct local attention to the anniversary of the Palestinian uprising. At another rally tens of thousands of people were bussed to the parade grounds in Baghdad.

Mass organisation

There were lots of anti-Israeli slogans and banners. The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was burned in effigy, but Iraq's public enemy number one did not get similar treatment. These were Iraqis, after all, not other Arabs.

The US, what US? said the people. It's not our concern.

I couldn't help but feel a grudging admiration for this rather impressive feat of mass organisation, in every respect. Privately, people did express fears that Iraq would be hit, and hit hard.

But concerns about America's plans were added to an already heavy load of daily burdens - the struggle to survive after more than a decade of UN sanctions. To some extent there was a resigned air of deja vu. We've been here before, we know what to do, we certainly know what to say.

I thought again of the vagrant woman while waiting a long hour for police to confirm that I wasn't a spy.

We were, unfortunately, arrested while filming a sun setting over palm trees, blissfully unaware that behind the trees lay a key communications centre.

The woman's inner world was completely divorced from the reality passing by; she was oblivious to the political dramas and undercurrents, to the dirt ground into her feet and elbows, to her madness, instead laughing with herself at some private joke.

Was she a visual image of the forces at work around her, I wondered, or... was she perhaps the sanest one of all?