Saddam Makes TV Appearance on Army Day
Saddam appeared after media in England and Germany, quoting Iraqi opposition reports, said he had suffered a stroke last Sunday after presiding over a military parade the previous day.
Baghdad has strongly denied the reports. But some have cast doubt over TV appearance saying it was not clear whether the speech broadcast on Saturday was live or taped.
In the address, marking the 80th anniversary of the Iraqi Army, Saddam hailed his troops as heroes for fighting two major wars over the past 20 years. He wore a dark suit, and appeared with an Iraqi flag to his right and flowers in front of him, Reuters said.
Referring to his "brave, heroic, loyal, trustworthy and great army," the Iraqi leader praised his soldiers' performance in the 1980-88 war with Iran and in the "Immortal Mother of All Battles" -- his term for the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
In these two conflicts, he said, the armed forces were "successfully proved to be the loyal sons of the history of their people."
Iraqi forces which had occupied Kuwait in 1990 were driven out by a U.S.-led multinational coalition.
Iraqi officials have said Baghdad is unconcerned about President-Elect George Bush as U.S. policy toward Iraq would not change.
Colin Powell, the man named by Bush as his new secretary of state, has said he will work with American allies to breathe new life into UN sanctions against Iraq, imposed after the Kuwait invasion. Meanwhile, an IRNA report from London said British Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain Saturday launched his third attack in three days against the critics of Iraqi sanctions, saying that they were appeasers of aggression that were preventing a resolution of situation.
"By aligning themselves with Iraq in opposition to the UN, they are perpetuating a situation they claim they want to end," he said in an article for ****The Guardian*** newspaper.
On Thursday, Britain was accused by former UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Hans Von Sponeck, of issuing "fabricated and self-serving disinformation" in support of maintaining sanctions against Iraq.
But this was denied by Hain, who said that the opponents of sanctions offered no alternative and "simply want to abandon Saddam's victims to their fate."
"This sounds to me like the kind of appeasement of oppression I fought against in my anti-apartheid days," he said, referring to his days as a peace activist in the 1960s and 70s.
In an interview with BBC Radio South Africa on Friday, Hain accused the "Sponecks of this world" of becoming "effective fellow-travelers and apologists for the maintenance of the Iraqi regime's brutal rule under Saddam Hussein."