| http://www.guardian.co.uk/World_Rep...,324838,00.html
Rebellion in southern marshes is crushed
As Western eyes focus on Baghdad, Saddam shows no mercy for mojahedin
By Ben de Pear in Tehran
Tuesday November 17, 1998
The threat of air strikes may have made Saddam Hussein back down over weapons inspections, but in the south of Iraq he is far from relenting in a ruthless offensive against the Marsh Arabs.
According to the mojahedin in Iran, President Saddam has turned his eye to the rebellious south while the West has focused on Baghdad.
At least 19 towns and villages between Nasiriya and Amara are being bombarded, in the second large-scale attack in less than a month. The Marsh Arabs say that United States and RAF aircraft, which make regular patrols over the southern no-fly zone, must have seen the destruction.
To crush a Shi'a uprising after the Gulf war, President Saddam drained the marshes - a triangle of land between Amara, Nasiriya and Basra - and destroyed an eco-system and 5,000-year-old culture in the process.
But the mojahedin have kept fighting a low-intensity war, making the barren landscape a no-go area for President Saddam's troops.
The mojahedin say the latest attacks are a reprisal for their victory in a six-day battle that ended on October 27.
A British television crew in the area the day before reported huge military convoys streaming along the main Basra to Amara road, but were told it was inaccessible because of 'repair work'.
One of the three mojahedin leaders from October's battle said the current offensive was far larger. Led by President Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan Majid, (the engineer of the 1988 chemical attack on the Kurds), the elite Fedayin have been drafted to join infantry and armoured divisions totalling over 5,000 troops.
The mojahedin leader said: "All are hungry for revenge. And there are only 200 of us."
The troops have surrounded eight villages around Nasiriya including Al-e-Shadid, Al Obeid, Al Ramla, and Al Gobe. He said thousands were cut off from fresh supplies of food and water. Anyone venturing out was shot.
In the district of Amara, north-east of Nasiriya, seven other settlements including Abu Shuzar, Al Chedi, Al Sigal are sealed off. There, said another mojahedin, even the animals looking for pasture were shot. There are increasing fears that the people of the villages will meet the same fate.
In reprisals for the October defeat, 150 homes were bulldozed in the village of Al Zora, south of Nasiriya. Despite the homes being empty of fighters, the remaining women, children and elderly in the village were shelled, with huge loss of life.
The most feared punishment, however, is cynical in its cruelty. Families are rounded up and flown to Iraq'a empty quarter of western deserts. There they are abandoned without food or water and left to die. For this water-borne people, this is a fate worse than death, and one which has serious religious implications.
The mojahedin say a Marsh Arab noble known as Abu Hattam has sustained the rebel movement. He has vowed to kill President Saddam or die fighting. Virtually unreported in the West because of the area's inaccessibility, their fight is kept quiet by Iran because of its sensitive relations with Iraq.
Abu, a quietly spoken mullah who fights alongside Abu Hattam, says the whole of the south, whether Shi'a or Sunni, hates President Saddam. It is this hatred, he says, and Mr Hattam's determination, which has ensured their survival. A network of spies throughout the government and intelligence services ensures their effectiveness is far greater then their actual fighting numbers.
As our interview ended, the mullah said: "The whole world sees what Saddam does on television. The aeroplanes from America and Britain are flying over the battle areas; we can see them and they can surely see us being slaughtered.
"Why all this crisis over weapons inspections? Why do they do nothing for the people of Iraq itself?" | |
