Abbas Khalaf, Iraqi Ambassador in Moscow, speaks at the meeting in the Union of Russian Writers

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday April 07, 2003 21:41 by Richard Zorge

Abbas Khalaf, Iraqi Ambassador in Moscow, speaks at the meeting in the Union of Russian Writers, 05/04/04

Abbas Khalaf, Iraqi Ambassador in Moscow, speaks at the meeting in the Union of Russian Writers, 05/04/04

First of all, I would like to thank you for your warm welcome. With you I feel myself as one of your own. The Union of Russian Writers is a very familiar place to me. I have translated many books of your writers. It was my duty towards Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Gorky and Sholokhov. The cultures of our peoples are similar and in the same way very human. Sometime ago Iraqi poets were gathering in a literature café in Baghdad and were reading the poems about the glory of Stalingrad. And now we see the history repeating itself… Now I am back with you, among the Russian writers, - this time as Iraqi Ambassador, - and I have no doubts about the solidarity of the Russian people with us. It is not just the solidarity on the official level when President Putin has expressed clear official position of Russia in relation to American intervention. President Bush has began a war of aggression against our country, in order to “plant democracy”. I am bewildered by this word – “planting”. Yes, they are trying to plant the democracy in our country with their cruise missiles, with their B-52 bombers, with their sophisticated murder bombs, shedding the blood of the civilian population of Iraq.

I would like to say to you, dear friends, that before the war has started we were told by the Americans that the Iraqi army will surrender by whole battalions, that we would be crushed within a couple of days, that the Iraqi people would meet the US soldiers with smiles and flowers. The American politicians also counted on “”divide and rule’ strategy, and they still keep hoping on that. In the South of our country the majority of the population are Shiite Muslims. And because Saddam Hussein is a Sunnite, the “democratisers” from the States were counting that the Shiites would rise against Saddam. But all their calculations were in vain. Our entire nation came closer together in the face of their aggression, and, despite their military superiority, the aggression is suffocating. The Iraqis are using the cudgel of the people’s war (expression used about “War and Peace” novel of Tolstoy) against the powerful aggressor forces. And what does it mean? That means that the USA and Britain are fighting not against the Saddam’s regime – they are facing the whole nation. That is what has a shock effect on them. Now they are telling us: many of their tanks and aircraft were destroyed by the friendly fire. This is their first reason. The second reason: the technical problems started appearing suddenly in their equipment “en masse”. Then they got yet another enemy – the weather. You know, we believe in God, and Allah and us do not have a bad weather. Now they also declared that they don’t have enough money for the war. But in reality, the main reason for all the failures of the aggressors is the brave resistance of the Iraqi people.

Many countries have expected that there would be a huge flood of the Iraqi refugees into the neighbouring countries. The Jordanians have created, with the British and the American assistance, a large camp for the refugees near Iraqi-Jordanian border. But the first week of the war has passed – and there weren’t any refugees there. Quite the opposite happened: 5000 Iraqis emigrants came back to their motherland from various countries in order to defend it. In order to fight the aggressors. Today I said to the Minister of the Extreme Situations of the Russian Federation, Mr. Shoygu who sends cargo planes with humanitarian help from Russia to Iran for the Iraqi refugees: “You better spare the Russian budget and send your cargos back. Maybe you would need it for flooding or some other extreme situations, but the Iraqis won’t need it. We are similar to you, Russians, by our character. We are similar by our patience, our withstanding, and our bravery. We are prepared to die standing for our honour. And the time will show that. Today we can see: they continue their bombardments, but the Iraqis are coming home. And, by the way, that camp in Jordan was destroyed by the weather. And if Shoygu was a really humanitarian-minded and a real Russian man, then he would send that humanitarian help not to Iran, but to Iraq itself. Because 97 % of all the murdered and the wounded in our country are civilians.

The Americans have never fought a real war. They have only had dirty wars: Vietnam, Korea, Yugoslavia, Somali, Beirut, Grenada, Afghanistan…and until today they can’t reach any real success in Afghanistan. So, how would they be able to conquer us? Also remarkable is that they have lost the diplomatic war, the political war and the information war. From the very first day they were telling us that they had taken Umm Qasr. I would like to tell you what Umm Qasr is like. Umm Qasr has become our Brest citadel. There are only 2 streets there, only 1500 inhabitants. It’s like a minor district town by Russian standards. But they still hold only the port and are still unable to take in our, Northern part of the city. Iraqi soldiers that fight independently of their command centre, have become a nightmare for them. Also, please take a not of the absurd of their propaganda policy. Every day they are fortunetelling through their computers: was it real Saddam who was speaking on TV, or was it his double? They do not know that the Iraqi army and all the 25 millions of Iraqi people are doubles of Saddam today! I can also assure you that they turned each and single of us into Saddam! And we are proud of that. Because today Iraq is the only country in the world that is defending international law. The only country that is defending the honour of all honest people of our planet. Iraqi nation is a small nation, but it has deep and heroic roots in history. We are more than 5000 years old. In my embassy in Moscow I do not have propaganda machine. I do not have the means for propaganda. But, just as the other workers of our embassy, I have become “the enemy” of the United States. Each of us is Saddam Hussein. State Department has written to the Russian Foreign Affairs ministry 3 times, demanding to throw me out of Moscow. They were sending telegrams to Ivanov, to Putin that the Iraqi ambassador in Moscow is a danger for the state security of the US. I believe that, by launching a war against my country, the USA have made a step towards their political death. Remember when the German Matthias Rust had landed his small plane at the Red Square in Moscow? After that the fall of USSR became visible and rapid. Because it had demonstrated all the ineffectiveness of the system that existed then. We Iraqis were so sure that you had a mighty army. We were proud of it. Many Iraqis were studying in your country; back at home we were always supporting your national football team…We were also automatically upset about the defeats of USSR in Afghanistan. To enter another country with armed forces has cost USSR dearly. For USA Iraq will become a true nightmare. And it’s not at all about Saddam. Is he a democrat, is he is tyrant, is he a republican, is he a religious leader – that all does not really matter. What matters, is that his people stand behind him.

Tank columns are continuing to move into our country from the very first day of the war. They go on, and on, and on… First, they did not want to admit that the Iraqis has American prisoners of the war, that Iraq has gunned down their planes and helicopters. Several helicopters “vanished”. How – “vanished”? Did children fly them? The moment when they approach the cities, they are met by our severe resistance. And then, of course – the partisan war. They have become crazy. They don’t sleep at nights. They can’t even think clearly.

Dear friends, I might be speaking too emotionally here with you today. I would ask you to forgive me for that and to understand: I do not have anti-American hysteria. No, America isn’t an absolute evil for us by its nature. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow we will have normal relations with the American nation, just like with any other, if the forces of evil will be removed from power in the United States. But if the today’s rulers will continue with their aggression, they might use the weapons of mass destruction because they won’t be able to justify their mass losses to their peoples.

They say: Saddam has the weapons of mass destruction. They have no proof of it, but they are oh so sure. Just as they are sure that it is worth for them to use the weapons of mass destruction against us. For the proof.

There is suffering, there are tears, and there is blood in Iraq today. When I see the suffering of my compatriots on TV screen, I feel pain in my heart. I am telling you this sincerely. I am only comforted by the thought that I am at war too – in my own way. Maybe I am just talking here, but because even this talking is being considered as danger for the security of the USA, I am proud that I am doing it almost every day. I do not have time to sit ah home – it seems that they are afraid even of words, those Americans – they are so scared that they are afraid even of words! They are afraid of the truth.

Thousands of Russian citizens are contacting us these days with their words of support. Many people here already know my in face. And I would say to you that we feel ourselves confident. I have never felt such pride for my country as I do now. My emotional, my spiritual condition today is such that I am seeing myself as a new person- far more important than I ever was. My dear friends, I thank you sincerely and I wish you good heath and many successes in your art. Lately the Iraqi people have experienced lack of valuable literary works coming from Russia. There are several reasons for that. But I know, the new times will come, and the cultural co-operation between our countries will re-vitalize and become yet again as powerful as it should have been.

Dr. Abbas Khalaf,
Iraqi Ambassador in Russia.