TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/020392/0203106.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.5 KB | 77 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 21

Uncle Saddam's Land of Terror



    Fear has always been part of life in Iraq, but never more
than now. Secret police and government informers have infected
neighborhoods, factories and schools. Some parents are afraid
of their own children, fearful that if their young ones hear
them express their true political beliefs at home, they might
unwittingly betray them. Those adults who oppose Saddam
Hussein's regime have to conceal it: when the Iraqi leader
appears on television, parents remind their youngsters to call
him "Uncle Saddam."

    The atmosphere is reminiscent of Stalinist Russia, when no
one could be trusted. Words of dissent are rare, especially in
the presence of foreigners. A man selling watches with a
picture of Saddam on the face looks carefully around before he
mumbles, "They're just not popular anymore." At a dinner party
in a Baghdad home, the guests do not feel comfortable talking
to two visiting Americans without turning the music up loud.
Only when they are confident that the music conceals their words
from hidden microphones will they quiz the Westerners about U.S.
policy in the gulf war. Why did the U.S. stop short of taking
Baghdad? they ask. Why didn't George Bush make sure Saddam
Hussein was killed? They say the Iraqi people did all they could
to overthrow Saddam in the aftermath of the war, but they were
so brutally crushed that they could not and would not try again.

    The working class and poor are less likely to doubt
government propaganda. When given the chance to talk to a
foreigner, they invariably ask, "Why is Bush punishing the Iraqi
people? Why does he hate us?" But when one young woman, robed
from head to toe, asks that question, a group of men get out of
a pickup truck and stop her from speaking. When they turn their
attention to a nearby government official, an older man hustles
her away, out of trouble.

    Military checkpoints dot Route 6 from Baghdad to the
southern city of Basra, evidence that tension persists between
the Iraqi army and the rebellious Shi`ite population. At one
checkpoint, passersby can see men being searched by soldiers.
On a tour of Basra conducted by the local military governor, a
general who reportedly commanded the troops that crushed the
Shi`ite uprising after the war, foreigners are escorted by a
truckload of armed soldiers with a roof-mounted machine gun and
grenade launchers -- though the general insists all is peaceful
in the city.

    Unlike Baghdad, where much has been rebuilt, Basra has
undergone little repair. Many bridges lie in ruins, and
sewage-pumping systems wrecked during the war have not been
repaired. Streets in the city's slums are flooded with filth,
and barefoot children often play in the foul roads; disease is
spreading.

    In a Basra nightclub, young Shi`ites dance or sit in dark
corners until the lights suddenly come up. A military officer
trailed by about eight armed soldiers strides onto the floor.
As the soldiers hold their rifles at the ready, the officer
rounds up several of the Shi`ite men in the club, checks their
documents and arrests them. A Foreign Ministry minder tells
foreign journalists that the men defected from the army. But as
always when something happens that the government does not want
people to see, the minder will not allow a photographer to take
pictures.

    -- By Alexandra Avakian/Baghdad