Frightened Iraqis buy guns for self-defence

By ROBERT FISK in Beirut

The strobe lights search for the Iraqis on the dance floor and the music is of the multi-decibel variety that even Saddam's sons would surely avoid.

But the Iraqi refugees in the east Beirut restaurant-nightclub are in the mood to talk.

Baghdad people are reported to be afraid. They are building ditches in their gardens - those who have gardens - and they are buying guns to defend their homes.

Most sinister of all is the story from a middle-aged Iraqi whose neighbour, the mother of a 38-year-old son who was arrested on "conspiracy" charges, threw flowers into the air when Saddam announced the release of all political prisoners.

Three days later, her son turned up at her home in Baghdad - in a coffin with a sealed lid. He had been shot through the forehead. Now his mother curses Saddam in the street.

Do I need her name? I suggest not - she is still in Baghdad - but the man wants to supply every detail for the veracity of his story.

It is like that under the strobe lights and the ear-shattering music. Iraqis with a future in the United States or Europe can talk at last on their transit through Beirut, celebrating their good fortune with the same horror that they survey their past.

"They have started to buy arms because they don't trust the Government to protect them if there's an American invasion," says one man.

"They want to protect themselves from both sides because they don't trust the Iraqi Government or the Americans."

Then there is another theme. "The people are no longer listening to their imams. The power of the clergy has gone. Iraqis' immediate concern is for themselves."

In Basra and Omaniyah and Kut, the people are buying guns.

"They have some kind of sympathy for the Saudis and Kuwaitis. They prefer that the Saudis or Kuwaitis come in and rule them rather than the Americans. They don't care about religion."

The Saudis and Kuwaitis are largely Sunnis, the southern Iraqis Shias - "but they want to live like the Saudis and Kuwaitis, with money".

Who knows where truth about Iraq and joy at receiving a visa to the West meet in this nightclub. One man says the Americans have collaborated with Saddam all along against "the Iraqi people", that the Iraqi Army will be destroyed by the United States - along with Iraqi cities - and that the tribes will be restored as ruling powers.

Iraqis here - the fear of Saddam spreads to Lebanon despite their imminent departure - refuse to have their names printed. Abu Ahmed - it means "father of Ahmed" - fears that weapons of mass destruction do exist in Iraq and will be used.

"Saddam will fight - and that is the reason many young men are refusing the call-up to the Army now. They believe the Iraqi Army will defend Baghdad; that Saddam and the Americans will turn Baghdad into a besieged city like Beirut under the Israeli siege of 1982; that many thousands will die; that Saddam will want the war to go on as long as possible to make the humanitarian situation worse and worse for the Americans."

And, of course, you can see the logic of all this.

"The whole city is guarded by the Republican Guard and its artillery have already been set to target certain roads and locations in preparation for the Americans' arrival.

"The artillery is positioned so that they have to hit their targets. They can't miss because they've already tried out the 'time-on-target' ranging that is necessary.

"Saddam's 'fedayeen' militia are already positioned in the Houriyeh City area of Baghdad as well as the al-Amel quarter."

So when will the resistance to America's occupation start? There is much discussion about this - the Iraqis are here with their families, with heavily lipsticked wives and small daughters who want to dance and sons who love Lebanese food - and most suggest five years.

Iraqis need food and medical care before they will be able to think about politics, they say.

"They are wrong," a woman mutters to me. "It will start much sooner. These people hope the Americans will be left alone for a while, but it will not be like that.

"Iraqis are tough people. They won't accept American occupation. They have never accepted foreign occupation."

The woman tells me she knows of a Lebanese humanitarian worker who has just been invited to the State Department in Washington to discuss the "after-Saddam" Iraq.

"She refused to go. She doesn't want to be a collaborator after the Americans occupy the country."

- INDEPENDENT