France's policy is still sharply criticized by
Iraqis
Rémy Ourdan
Translation by Douglas
French original: "La politique de la France reste très vivement critiquée par les Irakiens"
(Rémy Ourdan, Le Monde, 2004/03/18)With the exception of former Ba'athist officials, it is practically impossible to find anyone who supports Paris' position in the crisis.
Baghdad from our correspondent
France's policy is still sharply criticized by Iraqis. Contrary to what Europeans often think, having opposed the American occupation certainly does not help the popularity of Europe, or of any country, in Iraq.
It's a paradox but it's a reality. While the immense majority of Iraqis desire and publicly call for the end of the American occupation, this same immense majority remain happy with the fall of Saddam Hussein and privately admit that the departure of foreign troops could lead the country to civil war. Iraqis also know that Washington lied about the weapons of mass destruction but they deride this no end, the fall of the tyrant being the happiest event of the past 30 years. Ultimately, Iraqis have the tendency, out of habit and pragmatism, to ally themselves with the right of might.
In this country, where traditionally people smiled and said "France good. USA bad!", they are also sharply critical of France's political line over the year that has gone by... "While the American leadership is compounding error upon error in Iraq, the Europeans and the French in particular, are even stupider because they determine their stance only in reaction to Washington. They do not take Iraq and its inhabitants into account at all," says Fakhri Kareem, editor-in-chief of the newspaper al-Mada, trying to sum up popular sentiment. "Iraqis think France doubly betrayed them, first with Saddam, then with the American occupation. France cares only about its anti-American position. It is forgetting the Iraqis. Chirac and de Villepin must understand that no Iraqi finds their position courageous... What did France do to help Iraq free itself from the dictator and then to help Iraq regain its sovereignty? Nothing!"
Hilmi Dawood, a Kurdish reporter, francophone and francophile, is just as severe. "I was highly shocked by France's opposition to the war because, even though nobody likes Bush, neither in Europe nor in Iraq, the most important thing was to free us from Saddam," he says. "I didn't understand French policy at all. Not to mention the post-war when it's all over anyhow and Iraqis need help with crime and misery, yet France is absent."
The same bell tolls for the post-war with Bilal and Mounaf, students in political science, even though they are radically anti-American Sunnis and rather nostalgic for the former Ba'athist power. "Once the war was over, we saw that France's promises to help the Iraqi people were only wind. Nothing happened. France's policy is pretty words but no effect," said Bilal.
"I think France was only opposed to the war because they were defending their own interests, because they were friends with Saddam and received gifts from him," adds Mounaf. Like Mounaf, many Iraqis have the conviction that there was a special relationship between Paris and the Baghdad of Saddam Hussein.Their professor Amer Hassan Fayath says he is "disappointed." "All the more educated Iraqis lament the absence of France," he says. "As for the others, they couldn't care less about Europe because they know that the United States calls the shots. The position taken by France last year weakened it in the eyes of the Iraqi street. They proved that their opinion doesn't count. France was against the war but the war happened!"
In the souk and elsewhere, it is practically impossible to find anyone — with the exception of former Ba'athist officials — who supports Paris' position in the crisis. "I want the American invaders to leave as soon as possible but I am happy that they got rid of Saddam, the bloodthirsty!" says Hamid, a Shia cloth merchant. "I am disappointed — I, who am an admirer of general de Gaulle and of Victor Hugo — that Chirac did nothing to help the Iraqi people."
"We wanted to be friends with the French," adds his friend Majid, "but they supported Chirac who defended Saddam to the end. And I still haven't understood why. It's very strange..."Iraqi employees of France in Baghdad are also bitter. "They gather us every month to ask us to be patient and to 'remain faithful to France,'" says a Sunni professor at the French cultural center , closed for security reasons. "What faith? We adjunct professors have had our salaries canceled. France can't even afford us a living during this critical year. I'm a francophile. I don't like Americans but they're offering us good jobs and good salaries. They've offered me a position. I'd refused it until now, hoping France would get involved in Iraq but I'm going to take it. I'm a bit angry with myself for working with the American occupier and accepting his dollars but I am even angrier with France!"
"It's the same miscommunication between Europe and Iraq after the Madrid attacks. Pacifist and anti-American Europe is celebrating the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq as if this were a great victory!" says a Baghdadi reporter ironically. "We Iraqis think that France's and Germany's refusal to help us and the announced departure of Spain are a catastrophe. So that we can regain our senses after the terrible decades of Saddam, so that we can escape the face-off with the Americans, we need other countries today more than ever. The UN, Europe and France didn't have much credibility in Iraq to start with but they lost everything since last year by allowing Bush, whom we hate anyhow, be the only one to topple Saddam and then by failing to come to our rescue once the war was over."
Rémy Ourdan
ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN THE 19.03.04 EDITION
[Posted 2004/03/20]
Copyright © Watch 2001-2006.
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