TESTIMONY IN SWEDENS LARGEST AND MOST IMPORTANT NEWSPAPER
DAGENS NYHETER (DAILY NEWS):

4/11 2003

USA INVITED THE LOOTINGS

Khaled Bayomi looks a little puzzled when the US commander on TV regrets they do not have ressources to stop the looting of Baghdad. Accidentally, I was there when the US troops invited people to start the looting.

Khaled Bayomi went from Malmoe, Sweden, to Baghdad as human shield the same day the fighting started. he can tell a lot about that, but the most interesting part is his testimony on the looting.

- I had been talking to some friends close to Haifa Avenue on the west bank of Tigris. It was April 8 and the fighting was so intense I couldn't get back to the other side of the river. After noon it became totally quiet and four US tanks got in position in the outskirts of the slums. From the tanks I heard eager shouting in Arabic, inviting people to come closer.

During the morning hours everybody that tried to cross the streets were shot at. But in the strange silence after the shooting stopped people at last became curious.

After 45 minutes the first residents ventured out. Then the US soldiers shot and killed the two Sudanese guards outside a local government building and the Arab translators in the tanks invited people to go for it. The rumor spread quickly and the building was emptied. A little later the tanks broke through the gates of the Ministry Of Justice in the next building and the looting continued there.

I was in a big crowd that was watching together with me. They did not participate in the looting but dared not intervene. Many had tears in their eyes from shame and embarrassment.

Next morning the looting had continued into the Modern Museum 1500 feet further north. There too were two crowds, one looting and one watching in disgust.

Are you saying the US troops initiated the looting?

Absolutely. The lack of rejoicing made the US troops need pictures of Iraqis who in different ways demonstrated some kind of protest against the Saddam Regime.

But the residents of Baghdad tore down a big Saddam statue?

Did they? That was a US tank that did it, right next door from the hotel where all the journalists are staying. Right until noon of April 9 I didn't see one single damaged Saddam picture.

Back home in Sweden bayomi is a professor at the Lund University where he for ten years has lectured in Middle Eastern politics.

Isn't it good that Saddam is out?

he isn't out. he has split his army in tiny units. That's why there never was a large battle. As at state you can say he dismantled it in 1992 already when he gave priority to a tribal structure that is crucial in Iraq. When the US started the war Saddam gave up the state completely - relying on the tribal structure. That's why we didn't see any fighting in the big cities.

Now the US is forced to do everything themselves, because there is no political power from within Iraq that could even dream of challenging the existing structure. Those two [leaders] who have been brought there from outside the country get killed right away.

Bayomi is referring to what happened to Nazar al-Khazraji, who fled from Denmark [where he was indicted for war crimes], and the shiite leader Abdul Majid al-Khoei.

They were hacked to pieces with swords and knives by a raging crowd in Najaf because they were considered US puppets. According to the Danish daily BT, the CIA secretly brought al-Khazraji from Denmark to Iraq.

 http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1435&a=129852