|
|
IRAQ: Saddam's Diplomats Remain in Latin American Posts
By Diego Cevallos*
MEXICO CITY, Apr 18 (IPS) - Nothing remains of the Saddam Hussein government in Baghdad, but the diplomats he designated as his representatives in Latin America continue in their posts, but not all are up to making public appearances.
"We don't belong to a person, but to the Iraqi people," Mazin A. Thiab, Iraq's trade envoy to Cuba and also his country's representative to Panama, Nicaragua and Jamaica, told IPS.
However, his Mexican colleague, Elias Khinder al-Hadithi, asserts that he is still "representative of the Republic of Iraq," and says he will not leave "until my government calls me."
The situation in Brazil is a bit different. Iraqi trade representative in Brasilia, Jarallah Alobaidy, has opted to keep quiet, hiding from the bright lights of the media since he learned, on Apr. 8, that U.S. troops had entered Baghdad and that the Saddam Hussein regime was considered over.
But the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva continues to treat Alobaidy like any other representative of a foreign government, sources from the Brazilian foreign ministry told IPS.
Likewise in Venezuela, Taha al-Abassi, the only Iraqi diplomat in Latin America with the rank of ambassador, has not wanted to be seen since he lost contact with the government that named him to that post. Venezuela and Iraq are both members of OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries).
Thiab, Al-Hadithi, Alobaidy and Al-Abassi are the only representatives the Saddam Hussein government had in Latin America. None of the host countries expelled them, ignoring Washington's request that they do so when the war against Iraq began Mar. 20.
Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed Al-Duri, stepped down from that post once the military defeat of the Saddam Hussein regime in Baghdad took place, but the diplomats assigned to Latin America remain in the trenches.
"The situation of these diplomats is unique, and perhaps even lamentable, because although the represent a country, they were designated by a government that has now been overthrown, that fled, that is no longer there," commented Luis Estrella, professor of international law at the private Metropolitan University of Mexico.
These officials - or former officials - might hold compromising documents or information that the United States would like to get its hands on, Estrella said in a conversation with IPS.
While the U.S. forces were entering Baghdad, members of the Brazilian media trained their cameras on the Iraqi embassy in Brasilia, showing embassy staff burning piles of documents.
In Mexico City, some witnesses said they saw smoke coming from the Iraqi embassy there, though it is not known if employees there, too, were burning files.
"The Iraqi diplomats in Latin American will leave their posts at any moment, but they must fear returning to Iraq and running into problems there," noted Estrella.
These representatives no longer receive instructions or money from their country. Soon it will be impossible to pay their staff's salaries, or rent or bills other services, such as telephone, electricity and water.
In Venezuela, there is speculation from unofficial sources that Al-Abassi will ask the Hugo Chávez government for political asylum.
"We have not been informed by the government of Iraq of the ambassador's withdrawal nor of his continuity here in Venezuela. He will have to come and report his perspective, what his country is going to do, what he will do," said Venezuela's deputy foreign minister Arévalo Méndez.
In Cuba, Thiab has said that the mission there is operating "normally", but he acknowledged he is fully aware that a new government will be set up in Iraq, and that he is willing to abide by any decision taken by the new authorities.
Witnesses say that the portrait of Saddam Hussein that hung in the Havana embassy has been taken down.
At the Iraqi mission in Mexico City, Al-Hadithi stressed that the embassy will not close its doors, and that he is not worried about the situation of the personnel there, though he admitted that he does not know what their professional fate will be.
The word circulating in the Mexican media is that Al-Hadithi approached officials of the Vicente Fox administration to seek aid and protection from possible summons from Washington.
(* IPS correspondents Patricia Grogg/Cuba, Humberto Márquez/Venezuela and Mario Osava/Brazil contributed to this report.)
= 04181924 ORP019
NNNN
(END/2003)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
