Baghdad citizens get taste of free expression

Reuters | 4/15/03 | Edmund Blair

[kattracks]

Baghdad citizens get taste of free expression

By Edmund Blair

BAGHDAD, April 15 (Reuters) - It could mark a tiny step towards democratic free expression in Iraq after 24 years of one-party rule under Saddam Hussein.

Kurdish activists on Tuesday plastered posters of a Kurdish leader, Massoud Barzani, around a pedestal where a few days earlier a massive statue of the deposed Iraqi president had been unceremoniously toppled.

It was a novel image in a country where only one face, that of Saddam, has stared down on people for years.

A small crowd of curious onlookers soon gathered.

Asked what he thought of the picture, 32-year-old business man Uday Abdel-Amir grinned and said: "Freedom!"

"It is democracy. We don't want anybody to rule us like Saddam Hussein," he said as dusk fell on the city where U.S. soldiers patrol and the odd explosion and crackle of gunfire still echoes.

Other bystanders were less enthusiastic about the sudden appearance of political diversity on the streets of Baghdad.

"I am Arab, not Kurdish. I don't respect Barzani," said another 35-year-old man, who only gave his name as Ahmed.

Kurds make up 16 percent of Iraq's population and the vast majority of them live in the northeast of the country.

Barzani is the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of two main parties in the Kurd-controlled north. His poster congratulated Iraqis on their new found freedom.

"We hope that this freedom is the beginning of deep change in Iraq in order to build a democratic, parliamentary, federal system and to spread freedom," it said.

Some 375 km (235 miles) south of Baghdad, about 80 Iraqis from radical and mainstream Shi'ite and Sunni Muslim, Kurdish and monarchist groups held talks under the auspices of the United States and Britain on how to rule Iraq.

Many in the Baghdad crowd did not even know that the talks were going on. There are no newspapers, no state television or even electricity to run television sets.

As well as pasting Barzani posters on the statue, Kurdish activists also handed them out to bemused passers by.

Jalal Parisha, who works for a Kurdish television channel, said he wanted people to know that Barzani was active in Baghdad. "He wants people to be free," he said of Barzani.

But some among the small crowd had more pressing priorities.

"We don't want elections. We don't want a president. We need water and electricity," said Samir Sabah, angry that the U.S.-led invasion had left his city without electricity for days, while water was only available at some street taps.

04/15/03 14:07 ET

[kattracks]

"We don't want elections. We don't want a president. We need water and electricity," said Samir Sabah, angry that the U.S.-led invasion had left his city without electricity for days, while water was only available at some street taps.

I wonder how often Samir raised his voice to complain when Saddam was in power. Apparently, he doesn't realize the freedom he now has.

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ROOTERSPIN, We don't want to be able to live without torture, we want water. Barf.