A rchive Date
[ 19-03-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Iraq ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/03/19/46271-ap.html
Iraqi parliament holds emergency session
Wed, March 19, 2003
BAGHDAD (AP) - Some shops closed and there was little of Baghdad's usual bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic Wednesday as residents hunkered down for the final hours before a U.S. ultimatum expired for President Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq or face war.
Iraqi officials remained defiant however, with members of the Iraqi parliament meeting in extraordinary session Wednesday and declaring their loyalty to Saddam.
"We are dedicated to martyrdom in defence of Iraq under your leadership," they said in a message to Saddam issued at the end of the session.
Speaker Saadoon Hammadi opened the extraordinary meeting by telling the legislature:
"The people of Iraq, with a free and honest will, have spoken decisively and clearly in choosing their mujahid leader Saddam Hussein president of the country," he said.
"Saddam is the honest defender of lofty principles," he said.
Asked after the session whether Saddam would bow to U.S. demands and flee, Hammadi said: "He will be in front of everyone. He will fight and guide our country to victory. This is absolutely unthinkable."
Iraq's parliament is a rubber-stamp legislature. Saddam's Revolution Command Council and the ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party have the final say in the country.
U.S. President George W. Bush has given Saddam and his sons until 8 p.m. Wednesday EST to leave the country or face war. About 300,000 U.S. and British troops are amassed in the region for possible invasion.
Bush's spokesman said Tuesday the White House would not rule out a U.S. attack before the deadline expired. "Saddam Hussein has to figure out what this means," spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
The Iraqi leadership rejected the U.S. ultimatum Tuesday in a joint meeting of the top executive Revolutionary Command Council and the leadership of the ruling Baath Party - chaired by Saddam.
In Baghdad, Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf told a Wednesday news conference that Washington was deceiving American troops about the number of casualties they would sustain.
"We tell American soldiers and officers in Kuwait or wherever else they may be: "Open your eyes and be alert to the lies of the American administration' . . . (to say that) invading Iraq will be like a picnic is a stupid idea," he said.
Before Hammadi read his statement opening the parliament session, legislators shouted "with our blood, our souls we redeem you Saddam" and waved their fists in the air.
Outside on a hazy day, the streets of Baghdad were quieter than usual Wednesday morning, with light traffic and some shops shuttered. A day earlier, Baghdad residents mobbed bakeries and gas stations in a desperate rush for supplies before the deadline expired.
Some Baghdad residents did last-minute shopping Wednesday at the food stores that remained open, seemingly resigned that war would come.
"Death will come to you no matter where you are," said Lamia'a Kazem Mohammed, a 55-year-old housewife in a black chador as she headed home with two small shopping bags in Baghdad's Al-Saydia area.
"I am not going anywhere when the bombs fall. I am staying put at my house."
At the Al-Saydia food market, shoppers showed a preference for onions and potatoes.
"They can keep for a long time, so people are buying them in big quantities," said vegetables vendor Mohammed Adnan.
The demand has caused prices to rise. A kilogram of potatoes was selling for 650 dinars, or about 36 cents US, compared to 450 dinars, or 25 cents, a week ago, said Adnan.
Shelves in many shops in the commercial heart of Baghdad were nearly empty after store owners moved their merchandise to warehouses, fearing bombing or looting.
"I took all my goods home for fear of the bombing," said Tareq Khalil, who owns a store that sells eyeglass frames on Al-Rasheed street, Baghdad's oldest surviving road.
The dinar, Iraq's currency, also lost ground against the U.S. dollar, slumping to about 2,900 to the dollar, compared to 2,800 on Tuesday and 2,600 a week ago.
Late Tuesday, thousands of demonstrators swept into the streets of the Iraqi capital to show their support for the Iraqi president after he appeared on television - in military uniform for the first time since the 1991 Persian Gulf War - and warned his commanders to prepare for battle.
Waving pictures of Saddam, the protesters promised to give Saddam, their "blood and souls."
Smaller demonstrations took place elsewhere in Baghdad, but there were no immediate reports of demonstrations elsewhere in Iraq.
The diplomatic exodus continued, with ambassadors from Greece and France taking the overland road to Jordan. Diplomats from China, Germany and the Czech Republic left earlier in the week.
UN weapons inspectors also flew out of Iraq on Tuesday, ordered out by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan after the United States indicated war was near.
Foreign Minister Naji Sabri criticized Annan for withdrawing the inspectors as well as humanitarian workers and UN observers on the Iraq-Kuwait border, calling it a violation of UN resolutions that cleared "the path for aggression."
"This is a clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations," Sabri told a press conference. "This is abandoning by the UN of its duties. It's a shameful measure."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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