Iraq dissident urges US: Get UN support

An Iraqi dissident urged US President George W. Bush yesterday not to force the issue and instead let the United Nations supervise efforts to free Iraqis from the oppressive reign of Saddam Hussein.

Dr. Hussein Shahristani, who was once a victim of atrocities Saddam inflicted on the Iraqi people, will make this appeal in this afternoon’s forum at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center in Makati City, where he was invited to speak on the US-Iraq conflict over the dismantling of Iraq weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

"From what we hear, the US president is planning war to disarm Saddam if the UN could not disarm Saddam. What concerns the Iraqi people is how they would carry out the war in terms of the civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure in Iraq," Shahristani said.

Shahristani, a nuclear scientist, once served as adviser to Saddam in the 1970s, while Iraq was still developing its atomic energy capability to produce the now much feared WMDs, until he was jailed, kept in solitary confinement and tortured for 11 years when he refused to be part of his country’s nuclear buildup.

"I was more fortunate than many of my fellow political prisoners. I did not have holes drilled into my bones. I did not have my limbs cut off by an electric saw. I did not have my eyes gouged out. My three children... were not tortured to death in front of me to force me to make confessions to things I had not done. Women of my family were not brought in and raped in front of me, as happened to many of my colleagues," Shahristani said.

He was trained as a nuclear scientist and chief scientific advisor to the Iraqi Nuclear Energy Organization until 1979, when he was imprisoned at the infamous Abu Graib prison in Baghdad until 1991 for refusing to work on Saddam’s nuclear mlitary program.

In an exclusive interview with The STAR last night after he arrived from his base in London, Shahristani expressed his belief that the US may launch a preemptive military strike on Iraq with or without the UN’s blessings. The UN Security Council has yet to act on imposing its resolution for the disarmament of Iraq.

"Yes, it seems the Americans have already made up their mind about this war. They would go through with it, with or without the UN," Shahristani said.

He pointed out that he "has strong reservations against it because (it is) in the interest of the Iraqi people that this thing be supervised by the UN and all its member countries, to take an active part that the rights of the Iraqi people are observed."

He said the report submitted by the UN inspection team headed by his fellow scientists Hans Blix and Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei even came up with findings of at least 280 missile engines for WMDs last month. These were sourced from East European countries.

Shahristani, though, believed most of Saddam’s nuclear weapons installations have been destroyed by US forces during the 1991 Desert Storm. The "most lethal" weapons – the chemical and biological WMDs – were left untouched and still could not be accounted for by the UN inspection team.

He said the Iraqi people have been very supportive of UN-sponsored actions against Saddam and would like the Iraqi dictator removed from power so they could rebuild their country as a "democratic state."

The AIM faculty invited the Iraqi scientist, who is currently a visiting professor of the University of Surrey, Guildford in the United Kingdom, an accomplished educator and researcher with over 20 years experience in Iraq, the Middle East, UK and Canada. He is the author of many books on human rights abuses and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Shahristani is currently chairman of the Iraqi Refugee Aid Council, a UK-registered charity providing development assistance and emergency aid to impoverished refugees in the Middle East.

Although he and his family were offered asylum by both Britain and Canada, Shahristani chose instead to settle in Iran where they founded an organization to monitor the ongoing human rights violations in Iraq.

Shahristani’s life was featured in a 56-minute Canadian-produced documentary entitled "Fire and Water."

"Their reports and videos have kept the world informed about the atrocities resulting from Saddam’s secret war against his own people, a war which, this documentary claims, has killed or displaced more than 250,000 since 1991," according to an excerpt from the documentary.

The November 2002 issue of Dossier quoted Shahristani’s revelation’s about Iraq’s torture regime: "Hussein and his sons, Uday and Qusay, are personally responsible for operating a regime of systematic torture and murder designed to crush any hint of dissent."

Shahristani’s experience about Saddam’s plot to conquer the world was first presented to the world community when the British Foreign Office released a report to the UK press, accusing the Iraqi government of torturing political prisoners.

The Dec. 3, 2002 issue of El Media dubbed the British Foreign Office report as "one of the biggest PR (public relations backfires" when during Shahristani’s question-and-answer with the British press, the Iraqi dissident related how Britain unwittingly provided Saddam’s instruments of torture.

"Most embarrassingly for the British government, Shahristani claimed that during his own detention, he was held with British-made handcuffs, and that when torturers used drills to put agonizing holes in their victims’ bones, that the drills were also made in Britain," the El Media reported.

El Media added that "when it was Q & A time, the press corps asked if the British government was so concerned about human rights violations in Iraq, then why had it been silent during Saddam’s chemical warfare attacks during the ’80s?"

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush, supporting him in efforts to pressure the United Nations Security Council to allow the US-led global anti-terror coalition to launch a preemptive military strike on Iraq to force the issue of disarmament.

On the eve of Shahristani’s "by invitation only" speaking engagement at AIM, presidential adviser on ecclesiastical and media affairs Conrado Limcaoco arranged an exclusive interview by The STAR with Shahristani, whose itinerary and movements have been kept under wraps for security reasons.

"He (Shahristani) is not an invited visitor of the government but is here as an invited resource person of the AIM faculty. But for his welfare and security, given the tension and risks related to the Middle East (conflict between the US and Iraq), we are cooperating with the organizers," Limcaoco told The STAR.

He added that secrecy is important because "naturally he is in Saddam Hussein’s hit list."

Shahristani’s AIM forum today is closed to media coverage. It is limited only to invited AIM faculty and students, members of academe from other universities, the Makati Business Club and other industry leaders, and the intelligence community.

"That was an internal decision of the sponsoring agency which invited him for their academic purposes of discussing this world issue to hear what this guy would say as against what the other side claims," Limcaoco explained.

He added that he was told that US Embassy officials, headed by Ambassador Francis Ricciardone, have requested an audience with Shahristani while the Iraqi dissident is here in Manila.