Arab TV channels quick to cover conquest of Baghdad

9.30am

CAIRO - Saddam Hussein crashed from his pedestal live across much of the Arab world on Wednesday.

Arabic-language satellite television stations beamed pictures of the highly symbolic toppling of a giant statue of the Iraqi president live from a central Baghdad square into homes and coffee houses from Morocco to the Gulf emirates.

State-controlled television in many Arab countries also broadcast the scenes live, with jubilant Iraqis trampling on the bronze torso of their fallen strongman, despite the potentially uncomfortable implications for other Middle Eastern rulers.

For some, it was like the fall of an Arab Berlin Wall. For others, it was a humiliating act by a foreign power.

A Kuwaiti anchorman repeatedly chanted Islam's rallying cry of "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as a US armoured vehicle tore down the Saddam monument in Baghdad's Paradise Square.

"This is the fate of all dictators who are harsh towards their people," he exulted. Iraq occupied the tiny Gulf state in 1990 until a US-led coalition drove it out in 1991.

In a break with the past, state television in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates ran the pictures live.

Most of those governments officially condemned the US-led invasion of Iraq, although some discreetly aided the Americans.

Syria, run by a rival branch of the Baath Party, showed poetry and architecture programmes as Saddam's statue, pointing symbolically towards Jerusalem, was crashing to the ground.

A Syrian newscast showed tanks and some looting in the Iraqi capital, but broadcast no jubilation. Instead, it reported the lack of medicine and water in overcrowded Baghdad hospitals.

The Syrian media have traditionally been cautious in broadcasting news about events such as the fall of governments.

But as in Algeria and Tunisia, which did not broadcast the events live, many Syrians now have satellite dishes or can watch Qatar-based real-time news channel al-Jazeera at cafes.

If Arab governments fear a subversive precedent from the scenes in Baghdad, most have abandoned the past practice of suppressing unwelcome images. The pervasiveness of satellite TV makes such denial increasingly futile.

Jordan's state television has tried to compete with livelier Arab news channels which won local audiences with professional, live coverage of the war.

Non-Arab Iran's all-news station stopped broadcasting images from Baghdad after US tanks rolled into Baghdad, which an anchorman derided as "an empty show of force".

Iranian state TV later showed recorded pictures of the toppling of Saddam's statue. Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 and waged a bloody eight-year war with its Islamic neighbour.

Commentaries in many countries have focused on the plight of civilian casualties, and the looting and disorder in the wake of the US and British capture of Baghdad and Basra.

Perhaps the most surprising change has been conservative Gulf monarchy Saudi Arabia's state television, which has long fed deeply religious, traditional viewers a staple diet of princes and Muslim clerics.

It has taken to relaying unfiltered live coverage by Dubai-based al-Arabiya satellite channel and showed Wednesday's statue-felling and rejoicing in Baghdad.

Saudi commentator Jamal Khashoggi told viewers: "The Iraqi situation is exceptional, we can't compare it with Iran or Egypt...or a country like Saudi Arabia. This is...a regime outside history and I hope Iraq returns and reintegrates with its brothers and neighbours."

Syrian-dominated Lebanon's private TV stations showed live footage of Saddam's statue falling amid cheering crowds.

The radical Shi'ite movement Hizbollah's TV station, al-Manar, highlighted the moment when a US marine briefly covered Saddam's head with a Stars and Stripes flag -- a political blunder that could inflame Arab resentment.

"Occupation forces destroy Saddam's statue after covering it with their own flag," an al-Manar commentator said.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq war