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Posted on 04/09/2003 5:23:26 PM PDT by Cagey
In Sweden, Iraqi officials watched television and awaited new orders. In New York, the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations acknowledged the war was over. And in Brazil, Iraqi diplomats were burning documents and hanging up on reporters.
For Iraqi diplomats in embassies worldwide, the televised images of U.S. Marines rolling their tanks through Baghdad and Saddam Hussein's statue toppling to the ground before their cheering countrymen created confusion, resignation and paranoia.
Outside the Iraqi embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, employees were burning boxes and documents after the image of the Saddam statue was beamed to South America, police said.
"There were some workers who took papers from the offices to the garden to burn them," said police Col. Abinor Deilvane, whose unit protects embassies in the Brazilian capital. Photographers who arrived subsequently spied three piles of smoldering paper inside the embassy's walls.
Embassy official Abdu Saif, the secretary to Iraqi Ambassador Jarallah Alobaidy, denied documents were being destroyed. "It's all lies," Saif said. "We are only burning garbage and recently cut grass."
A second call, answered by an unidentified employee, produced the message "I'm not working now" and a quick hang-up.
In New York, U.N. ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri told reporters outside his home that it was time to forget about the war.
"My work now is peace," Al-Douri said. "The game is over, and I hope the peace will prevail. I hope the Iraqi people will have a happy life."
Al-Douri said he had no "relationship with Saddam" and "no communication with Iraq." So how did he reach his determination?
"I watch the television like you," he said.
The scene was similar in Sweden, where a spokesman for the Iraqi embassy appeared unsure whether their operation would remain open - and if it did, who might be giving the orders.
"We don't know anything," spokesman Jamal Abdulrazak told The Associated Press. "All we know is what we see on television. We are just (government) officials. We have not received orders from the ex-government or a new government."
Abdulzarak was one of three Iraqi diplomats left in Sweden; last month, Swedish officials banished two others for allegedly spying on Iraqi exiles. The embassy in Stockholm is Iraq's only diplomatic outpost in the Nordic and Balkan countries.
"If they want us to stay, we stay," said Abdulzarak. "If they want us to go home, we go home. We are Iraqi. We do our job."
In Moscow, reporters tried unsuccessfully to contact Iraq's ambassador about a report that Saddam had taken refuge at the Russian Embassy in Baghdad. It was left to Russia's foreign minister to deny the report.
Maybe the French could help them to form a government-in-exile somewhere...call it Vichy-raq
First, the US and other host countries can declare the "diplomats" persona-non-grata and put them on a plane to Baghdad International Airport. I suspect we would see a lot of claims for asylum. I suggest accomodations in Gitmo.
Second, the newly established interim Iraqi government could call them all home for "consultations". See post #4. Ditto on the requests for asylum.
Imagine these diplomats throwing themselves on the mercy of the Hague only to find that the new government has jurisdiction.
I would advise investing in portable property. And you may want to get a copy of "Resumes for Dummies."
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