The Hindu : Iraq, U.S. drift further apart

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 16, 2002

International

International

Iraq, U.S. drift further apart

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA (BAHRAIN) OCT. 15. Iraq and the United States appeared to be drifting further apart with the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, demonstrating through a State-wide referendum that he continued to enjoy overwhelming public support in the face of threats from Washington and some of its allies.

Iraqis today turned out in strength to cast their votes at 2,000 polling stations in a presidential referendum, which Mr. Hussein is certain to win. Mr. Hussein won 99.96 per cent of the vote in a first referendum in 1995 and there is speculation that he might get a 100 per cent "yes" vote on Wednesday when results are declared.

``Iraq's unified voice declaring...yes, yes to the leader Saddam Hussein deafens small Bush and officials of his evil administration,'' Al-Jumhuriya state newspaper said in an editorial. The Iraqi President, as a result of the referendum in which around 12 million citizens can participate will be entitled to extend his 23-year-rule by another seven years. Supporters of President Hussein vowed to support him to death, with some describing him as the "pride" of Iraq.

``This is Iraq, and this is the people of Iraq,'' Mr. Hussein's top ranking official, Izzat Ibrahim, said in Baghdad. "How will America fight this great people? How much will America lose and for what reason?'' Mr. Ibrahim pointed out that the Bush administration was misleading the Iraqi people. Iraqi leaders on Monday made it clear that that the referendum would symbolise the defiance of the Iraqi nation to the United States. "The political and international circumstances and the American and Zionist threats (against Iraq) have given the referendum a new meaning,'' the Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, said.

But while there were celebrations on the streets of Baghdad on Tuesday, there was no easing of the stand-off between Iraq and the United States. There was, for instance, a further hardening of differences on the re-entry of weapons inspectors into Iraq. Baghdad has so far rejected the U.N.'s request seeking protection for weapons inspectors entering northern and southern Iraq. The U.S. and Britain, in bid to protect ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq and the Shias in the south, have denied permission for Iraqi planes in these "No fly zones."

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