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French helped Iraq to stifle dissent
France colluded with the Iraqi secret service to undermine a Paris conference held by the prominent human rights group Indict, according to documents found in the foreign ministry in Baghdad.Hosting a human rights conference in Paris seemed like such a funny idea at the time... Various documents state that the Iraqis believed the French were doing their utmost to prevent the meeting from going ahead. Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP who chairs Indict, said last night that she would be demanding an apology from the French government for its behaviour, which she described as "atrocious". The files, retrieved from the looted and burned foreign ministry by The Telegraph last week, detail the warmth and strength of Iraqi-French ties. They include a six-page letter dated February 1998 from Saddam Hussein to Jacques Chirac, welcoming the French president's support in the campaign against sanctions and assuring him that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. The documents regarding Indict show that pro-Saddam elements, "Iraqi and Arab brothers", gained access to the conference, which opened on April 14, 2000, at the Hotel La Concorde Lafayette. Indict's attempt to mount a protest outside the Iraqi ambassador's residence was foiled by the authorities. A month after the meeting, a letter headed "Role of Cheques made out to Georges Galloise? Perhaps the most damning document is from the Iraqi intelligence service, Iris. The service, known as the Mukhabarat in Iraq, operated as the domestic secret police and as an external intelligence agency. Its role abroad was to collect intelligence, murder opponents and maintain relations with friendly groups. The document, dated March 28, 2000, is from the head of Iris to Saddam's office. At the time the organisation was run by Tahir Jalil al-Habbush, number 14 on America's wanted list. The letter appears to be written by a different hand from one revealed last week purporting to record that George Galloway benefited from contracts under the oil for food programme. But it carries the same signature. It states that "one of our sources" met the "deputy spokesman" of the French foreign ministry, "with whom he has good relations". It claims that the spokesman from the justice and interior ministries had sought to find a legal way of preventing the Indict meeting. The paper said it had been agreed that no Iraqi opposition leaders would be granted visas for France to attend the conference. It is not clear if Iraqis living outside the country were granted visas. Although the conference went ahead, the Iraqis regarded moves to undermine it as a striking success. A memo dated April 18, 2000, was sent to Saddam's office by the then foreign minister, Mohammad Said al-Sahaf, who later became the information minister nicknamed "Comical Ali". It is headed "The Failed Enemy Conference in Paris" and says that the French media ignored the event. Typical Comical Ali. "We persuaded les Francaise to behave terribly, terribly badly. They wanted to oppose us, cruel oppressors that we are, but we threatened to roast their stomachs in hell. My feelings, as usual, we will corrupt them all." Miss Clwyd, MP for Cynon Valley, recalled various attempts at disruption. Saddam supporters staged a protest outside before it started, she said, and at one point a bomb scare led to the hall having to be evacuated. Victims of Saddam's regime gave evidence at the conference and filming was strictly forbidden because they feared being identified. But someone smuggled in a camera and started filming, Miss Clwyd said. "The police were called. But they could not take the film from the man because he was an Iraqi accredited to the Moroccan embassy." The French foreign ministry denied collusion. A Quai d'Orsay source said it should not come as a surprise that French officials met Iraqi intelligence officers in Baghdad. But he denied accusations of specific collaboration to disrupt the conference. Could indict have possibly chosen a worse venue?! Posted by: Bulldog 2003-04-28 |
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