When all hell broke loose
By Bhim Singh

IT was 12.10 p.m. on December 17, 1998, when deafening sounds of Iraqi siren suddenly woke us up from our sleep in the noted Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad. Hardly had the siren gone silent, the sound of explosions started shaking the windowpanes. Amidst suspense and agony I rushed from the bed to the rattling window. Sharp twinkling lights were raining all around, as if it was a Divali celebration in India. The fountains of sparkling lights were rising from the ground all around the hotel. Nobody knew at the time what these sparkling lights were. Later we learnt that they were anti-missiles engineered by the Iraqi Defence Ministry to defend the civilian population against missile attacks.

The missiles, with their lightning speed and deafening sound, it appeared, were pouring everywhere on the city of Baghdad. Several cameramen rushed on to the roof-top of the 16-storey hotel building to receive an intimate view of the Cruise missiles. While the entire city of Baghdad was under the missile attack, the traffic remained normal on the roads on the either side of the hotel. There was no blackout. The entire city of Baghdad continued shining with its usual street lights. Naturally panic prevailed among the hotel guests. Several inmates started checking out and many rushed to the bunkers built in the basement of the hotel. I argued with those who were rushing to the bunkers to stand outside the hotel and better watch the missile attack rather than dying in distress under the debris. Most of the inmates came to the lobby and started watching the most horrifying display of the imperialist powers on the skies of Baghdad.

It was a heavy feast for the transporters as taxi fare from Baghdad to Amman shot up from $ 50 to $ 700. A small taxi which normally charged just $ 20, started charging $ 200 The helpless foreigners, mostly business men and the delegates who came to attend three different international conferences on human rights from about 70 countries, were trying to leave Baghdad the moment the attack started.

Since the 1991 Gulf war, Iraq continues to remain under UN economic embargo. There is a total ban on international flights. The neighbouring countries, namely Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and even Iran sealed their borders with Iraq, except Jordan. There has been only one entry to Iraq from Jordan at the Treavel Point. Treavel is nearly 400 km from Amman, Jordan. And Baghdad is 567 km from Treavel. Most fantastic. An absolutely modern road winds its way through the Iraqi desert. Perfectly safe. In spite of UN sanctions, economic crisis, 2000 per cent inflation in Iraq since the Gulf War, there has been no incident of crimes or thefts or threat to the locals or the outsiders. Even the ministers walk in the public without any security.

It was not comfortable to sit inside the hotel room in that tense atmosphere charged due to the continued heavy missiles raids. Some of the officials from the Ministry of Information, including its information chief, Mr Khaliq, I found, was snoring. There were several foreign delegates and business men standing in a long queue for checkout.

Sazhi Umalatova, chairperson of the Russian Peace Party, who arrived on the previous evening along with a heavy Russian contingent, stood also in a desperate situation. Sazhi had recently organised an impressive international conference against Iraqi sanctions in Moscow which I also attended. There were about a dozen of Indian politicians and business men who came for shelter in Rasheed Hotel in the morning hours.

At the entrance gate of the hotel, a big sketch of President George Bush stands carved out on the floor. It was done after the Gulf war "to punish" the American President for Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. Whether one enters the hotel or walks out, one has to walk over George Bush. While watching the sky war between the Iraqi anti-missile rockets and Cruise missiles fired by the USA from their navy warships stationed at the Arabian Gulf nearly 1500 km away, I could hardly miss the consequences of the Gulf war launched against Iraq by George Bush. How will historians write the story of this invasion of Clinton? After all, this was the first computerised aggression by missiles in the history of wars.

The Security Council was sitting in its emergency session in New York while its two permanent members were storming their missiles into Iraq. The outcome of the emergency meeting of the National Security Council of the USA appeared to be much more important than the deliberations of the members of the Security Council. A clear defiance of the authority of the United Nations and making a mockery of its charter. It reminded me of Hitler tearing off the peace treaty, defying the League of Nations in 1939 and invading Czechoslovakia.

The Indian Ambassador in Baghdad, R. Dayakar, kept on ringing me after every half an hour to inform about the latest CNN news. There was no CNN news available in the hotel except inside the room of CNN correspondent. I learnt through Dayakar that the Security Council was still sitting in its emergency session. China had described this attack as "most dishonest act". Dayakar offered us a lift from Baghdad to Amman along with the Indian families of the diplomats working in Baghdad who were being sent to Amman under the instructions of the External Affairs Ministry, Government of India. I thanked him as I had no plan to leave Baghdad at this crucial hour. The attack of the Cruise missile continued till 6.30 in the morning. After the signal of the siren, I walked out of the hotel, to find out the damage done in the city. I walked for about an hour, around the hotel area to the Press Centre from where CNN and BBC were ‘shooting’ the missile attack. The Press Centre is situated on the ground floor of the building of the Information Ministry.

There was no news about the damage done till then. I talked to the CNN correspondent at 7.30 a.m. He could not tell about the targets of the attack or the damages caused. I talked to Prakash Shah, Special envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations in Iraq. He was still fast asleep at 8.30 am. He told me to call him later but admitted that he had no information about the damages by then. Prakash Shah is a former senior diplomat from Indian Foreign Service. He has been appointed by Kofi Annan as a Special Envoy in Iraq. The soft spoken Prakash Shah had advised me last evening to leave Baghdad. He had shifted from Rasheed Hotel to Hotel Canal in Baghdad which is under the control of the UNSCOM.

I also learnt from independent sources that all the weapon inspectors had left Iraq by the December 16. About 60 percent employees of the UN working as humanitarian workers to supervise distribution of food and other items had also moved out of Iraq. Prakash Shah was the only senior UN representative who stayed back in Baghdad. Richard Buttler, Chief of UNSCOM, had left Iraq a couple of days before. It was his report to the Secretary General on the so-called non-cooperation of Iraqi authorities to the weapon inspectors which was presented by the Secretary General of the UN to the members of the Security Council on December 16.

An Iraqi driver took us around the city. The vehicular traffic was playing as usual. Shops remained open and the rush of the customers to purchase essential commodities for the Ramadan was encouraging. We visited a hospital which was destroyed by the missiles. Some people were lying dead and the injured were being loaded into the ambulances to be shifted to some safe hospitals. There was commotion among the students in the university of Baghdad. Some groups were shouting slogans against Clinton and Tony Blair. They were happy to see us (Hindi-Indian) sharing the sufferings of the people of Iraq.

The missile attack started before 8 pm. This time B-52 bombers joined the attack. This was perhaps the first experiment of the USA to fire Tomahawk missiles through computerised mechanism on the living human beings. It looked as if the USA and the UK were trying to experiment the computerised aggression on the people of Iraq. B-52 bombers were carrying Skud missiles from the Island of Diego Garcia about 10,000 km away from Baghdad. The estimated cost to carry and land one such missile would cost nearly $ 1 billion. The night attack between 17th and the 18th was much more horrifying than that of the previous night. What a courage people of Iraq showed during the attack. No blackout. No restriction on the movement of the people. The vehicular traffic remained as usual. The entire city of Baghdad remained illuminated while missiles were being dropped on the people in different parts of Iraq.

I would like to quote producer Robyn Monblatt, a spokesman of the Pentagan who announced in the morning hours of December 18 "Anti-aircraft batteries fired into the Baghdad sky, as incoming American and British missiles rocked the Iraqi capital and its surroundings in the second wave of attacks Thursday night."

US navy planes conducted raids from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf. British bombers also launched air strikes into Iraq on Thursday evening. The renewed assault came after naval and air forces caused extensive damages to Iraq military installations early Thursday, Iraq time. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs, General Henry Shelton, admitted in Washington that more than 200 Tomahawk missiles hit 50 targets in Iraq, including the Baghdad barracks for the elite Republican guards and Iraq’s Military Intelligence Headquarters.

Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yasin Ramadan, denouncing the attack, said that several civilian areas were damaged during the missile attack. In his press conference on the December 19 the Iraqi Vice-President said that seven Iraqi Presidential Palaces were destroyed. Children’s hospitals, oil refineries, school buildings and several market places were damaged by the US bombers.

We were sitting as captives as there was nowhere to go. The CNN late evening commentary on the reaction of the members of the Security council was a big shot in the arm of the Iraqi leadership and a morale booster for the 22 million Iraqis. Russias President Yeltsin accused the USA of crudely violating the UN charter. The Russian Duma condemned the USA by 394 votes with only one vote against. China described the attack as most "dishonest act" whereas French Prime Minister Lionel Gospin deplored the American military strikes. It was for the first time since 1991 that the 22-member Arab League described the attack "an act of aggression".

The 19th morning witnessed occasional missile attacks on the city of Baghdad and other areas. Ramadan started on the 19th in the Arab World. Interestingly, many families started their fast by taking Sehri (morning meal) outside their homes while watching the missiles landing in their neighbourhood.

This was a big day for the people of Iraq and particularly for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to witness public demonstrations and rallies in support of the people of Iraq, condemning the US-UK aggression almost all over the world, from India to Japan, Latin America and in the entire Arab world. It appeared from the Arabic news coming from the capitals of the Arab nations, Libya, Tunisia, Khartoum, Cairo, Damascus and from several European countries that there was anger against the USA, particularly among the youth. It must have been a torturous day for those Arab kings, sultans and sheikhs who still remained loyal to the "New World Order". We had thought that the attack will stop with the beginning of the Ramadan on the morning of December 19. It did’t happen.

Kofi Annan’s intervention could not deter the USA and the UK to stop this monstrous attack. Kofi Annan’s regrets on this occasion shall only remained a matter of record. When Kofi Annan was speaking at the UN that, "the United Nations had to try, as long as any hope for peace remained," the USA and the UK had fired nearly 700 missiles on Iraq costing about, $ 500 billion, according to the latest estimates on the expense on Operation Desert Fox.

This author along with his camera team was present in Baghdad during the four-day Operation Desert Fox. The author coincidentally was also present in Iraq on January 16, 1991, when Iraq was attacked under Operation Desert Storm, the mandate of the United Nations by 35 countries led by the USA.