Saddam-sounding tape urges war against occupation

By PHIL REEVES

BAGHDAD - One month after the fall of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein - or someone who sounds very like him - has issued a tape-recorded appeal to Iraqis to launch a secret underground war against the American and British occupation of their country.

A new audio tape, the first since the dictator was thrown out of power, has surfaced. In it he says that he is addressing his people by "secret means" from "inside great Iraq".

"It sounds as if we have to go back to the secret style of struggle that we began our life with," said the speaker, in a tired-sounding 15-minute monologue interspersed with coughs.

He exhorts "Arab and Kurd, Shiite and Sunni, Muslim and Christian and the whole Iraqi people of all religions... to kick the enemy out from our country."

The voice on the recording - which, according to Iraqis who have heard it, has the same phrasing and accent as their former leader - makes a marked effort to establish that the recording was recent. It refers to celebrations by Iraqis on Saddam Hussein's official 66th birthday on 28 April.

"It was an Iraqi decision (to celebrate), because they consider Saddam Hussein as a brother or as a father to them," the speaker says, "and this is just to express of their free will that nobody forced them to do it or to live in any way against their will. It is their true attitude toward Saddam Hussein."

He calls on Iraqis to reject any new leaders "working with the foreigners" and to rise against the occupying powers by "not buying anything from them, or by shooting them with rifles and trying to destroy their cannons and tanks".

The tape - which will exasperate the Americans and British who have yet to find Saddam - came to light after it fell into the hands of the Sydney Morning Herald.

The paper says it played the tape, allegedly recorded two days ago, to an Australian linguistics expert and to more than a dozen Iraqis. The overwhelming opinion was that the voice and rhetoric were very similar, or identical, to Saddam's, it said.

The newspaper reported yesterday that its correspondent received the tape outside the Palestine Hotel - where many TV stations are based - by two men on Monday. It said the pair were trying to deliver it to two Arabic language channels, Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiya, but took fright at the sight of US soldiers.

When the newspaper's translator pointed the way to the hotel, which is still ringed by razor wire and American forces, one of the two handed over the tape, saying that the speech had been made by Saddam that day and it was his duty as an Iraqi to ensure that it was made public. The translator said the two had accents from Tikrit, Saddam's home town where his support remains strong.

The tape came as no surprise to people in Baghdad, who are likely to conclude it is authentic. Most Iraqis appear convinced that the dictator is still alive, and was not killed either in the salvo of Cruise missiles fired by the Americans at the start of the war to "decapitate" the regime, or by a missile strike on a restaurant in Baghdad's al-Mansour neighbourhood on 7 April, after Saddam was reportedly seen there.

Many in Baghdad appear to believe that he is still somewhere in their midst, moving from house to house to avoid being caught by Americans. There have been several rumoured sightings. Some Iraqis claimed to have seen Saddam in the Azamiyah district two days later - an appearance that was videotaped and broadcast by Abu Dhabi television - but some US officials dispute the authenticity of that tape.

Rumours have been circulating for days in Baghdad that a speech would soon be broadcast by Saddam, proving that he was alive and exhorting them to resist US occupation.

Although many Iraqis express relief at his departure, their disappointment over the failure of the US and British to make the streets secure - armed looters continue to operate - and to restore jobs and basic services is prompting some to have second thoughts. It is common to hear Iraqis complain that life under occupation is worse than the past regime.

There have been pockets of pro-Saddam demonstrations, notably in Fallujah after the US 82nd Airborne Division last week shot and killed 13 people by firing randomly into a crowd of people carrying a pro-Saddam banner on his birthday. Slogans against the occupation demanding a withdrawal of US troops have become more numerous in the last fortnight.

- INDEPENDENT

Transcript of the 'Saddam tape'

Herald Feature: Iraq