Former top Iraqi official says Saddam survives strikes: report

WASHINGTON, April 28 -- Former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz has claimed that he saw Saddam Hussein alive after the two airstrikes mounted by US-led coalition forces to kill him, USA Today reported Monday.

A senior US defense official was quoted as saying that Aziz, who is now under the custody of US forces, made the claim when being questioned by US interrogators.

The official said the interrogators have concluded that Aziz is lying about some other matters that have come up in interrogation, indicating that the United States is not sure whether Aziz is telling the truth about Saddam's fate.Acting on tipped intelligence, the US-led forces made two attempts on Saddam's life on March 19 and April 17 separately. The administration has since said it does not know whether Saddam is dead or live.

Iraqis at Saudi refugee camp anxious to return home

RAFHA, Saudi-Iraqi Border, April 28 -- "You outsiders will never understand the true feelings of the refugees who have lived in exile for 12 years. With Iraq war coming to an end, we areanxious to return to Iraq when security is guaranteed," said 40-year-old Saad Aziz, with tears rolling down his cheeks.

"It is like living in jail here without any hope. We have been forgotten," the Shiite Muslim from southern Iraq living at an enclosed Saudi refugee camp, just 10 km from the Saudi-Iraqi border,said.

Saad Aziz is among one of the 33,000 people who fled to the campnear the northern Saudi border town of Rafha after the 1991 Gulf War when Iraqi troops crushed a Shiite uprising sparked by US callsfor Iraqis to overthrow President Saddam Hussein.

Although over 25,000 refugees have now been resettled in other countries and some 3,300 returned to Iraq over the years, some 5,200 still remain in the barren desert camp, which is ringed by barbed wire and security fences, unable to find a host country.

"We don't want to stay in this desert camp. Of course, we hope to go back to Iraq as soon as possible. But we have no money, and we demand fair compensation and an appropriate assistance to start a new life in Iraq," said Najim al-Derawi, a group leader of the refugees.

Standing beside Najim, two young men were holding a banner: "No comeback without our justice. The Iraqi regime has expropriated allour property in Iraq."

Samer Haddadin, director at the Rafha camp office of the UN HighCommissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Xinhua that so far some 300Iraqi refugees have submitted applications for returning home. "We will start to process the applications immediately. But it is difficult to say when these refugees will leave, maybe within weeks."

"Right now, the UNHCR does not encourage the refugees to return home at the moment. We have to guarantee their safety, security anddignity. A UNHCR team of experts will assess the security situationin Iraq," he added.

He also urged the international community to provide more assistance to the refugees. "Living in a refugee camp is not like going to picnic in the desert at the weekends. It means suffering,"he noted.

In the past 12 years, the Saudi government has spent 5 billion Saudi riyals (some 1.3 billion US dollars) to feed, clothe, house and provide medical treatment for the Iraqi refugees. By only providing the refugees food alone will cost 400,000 dollars per day.

The Saudi government has established a school and a 64-staff medical center for the refugees. Every housing unit for the refugees has a television, with electricity, sewage system, heatingin winter and air-conditioning in summer.

In addition, every male refugee gets 300 riyals (about 80 dollars) in pocket money every three months, while women get 350 riyals.

However, the refugees are not allowed to work outside the camp. Camp officials rotate the 300 jobs available to refugees as cleaners, teachers or drivers every six months.

Although the refugees are provided with basic food, clothing andhousing units, none of this could alter the psychological trauma ofbeing a refugee. Some 1,800 refugees are single men over the age of19 who can not marry, study or work... Some have suffered from depression and begun to despair of ever living a normal life.

Camp psychiatrist Hisham Zamka told Xinhua that he often gave treatment to the single men who were under most pressure and there were several cases of attempting to commit suicide. "They can not see any hope. This is a big problem."

An art exhibition created by some of the camp's 1,400 children sends the same somber message. One watercolor entitled "cry for my country" shows a palm tree with a big tearing eye. Art teacher Abdullah Amir said the watercolor was created by a 13-year-old boy named Ehsam Kate and the palm tree symbols Iraq.

Before reporters leaving the refugee camp, a group of nine-year-old boys recited a poem, expressing their feelings: "We thank the Saudi people for their hospitality. We were born in Rafha and Rafhawill remain in our hearts for ever; We could only learn about Iraq through teacher's description. We are eager to return to our motherland and live like a free man.

 

LONDON, April 28-- Three paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and Paul Gauguin have been found behind a public toilet on Monday, within 48 hours after they were stolen from a nearby art gallery in Manchester, northwestern England.

Van Gogh's "The Fortification of Paris with Houses," Picasso's "Poverty" and Gauguin's "Tahitian Landscape" were found in a tubebehind a public toilet near the gallery, said Greater Manchester Police in a statement issued to the media.

"Following an anonymous phone call, Greater Manchester Police received information that a number of paintings were placed behinda nearby public toilet," said the statement.

The paintings, with an estimated value of one million pounds (1.6 million US dollars), had been returned to the gallery and were due to be examined by experts, said the police.

Staff at Whitworth Art Gallery in south of Manchester city center found the paintings missing late on Sunday morning.Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh painted The Fortification of Paris with Houses in 1878, at the age of 25, using pencil, chalk and watercolors.

Between 1891 and 1893, Parisian Paul Gauguin, born in 1848, created his dramatic Tahitian Landscape with pencils and watercolors.And in 1903, 24-year-old Pablo Picasso of Malaga, Spain, used pen, ink and blue watercolors to create Poverty, the outline of a frail man guiding a small child.

The gallery collects some 40,000 art works in total, including 12 Picasso's and Van Gogh's Hayricks, as well as sculptures, drawings, prints, wallpapers, historic textiles, British watercolors, and modern and contemporary arts.The gallery was founded in 1889 and is designated as of national significance by the British government.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi Monday warned Iranian pilgrims not to visit Shiite holy sites in Iraq.

The spokesman stressed that Iran has no plan to dispatch any pilgrims to the holy sites in Iraq until an Iraqi government is established, the official IRNA news agency reported.He reiterated the need for a democratic government to be established in the war-torn country, and expressed the hope that the Iraqi people would be given the right to decide their future government.

Referring to a conference of Iraqi dissident groups which openedat Baghdad Monday morning, Asefi said: "We should wait and see whatthe Baghdad confab will decide and whether it will move in line with the aspirations of the people or not."

Iran reiterates "transparency" of nuclear program

TEHRAN, April 28 -- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi reiterated on Monday that Iran's nuclear activities remained "transparent."

In a response to a recent statement by Russian Atomic Energy Minister Alexander Rumyantsev, who claimed that Iran has purchased required devices for production of atomic bomb from various countries, Asefi said: "Iran's nuclear activities are very transparent."

"Iran has not purchased any devices for production of atomic bomb and only seeks peaceful use of atomic energy for the welfare of its citizens," the spokesman was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying.

"We have a very sincere cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency and have invited Mohamed El Baradi to inspect Iran's facilities and installations," he said, adding that "some hostile circles are trying to distort realities in a bid to attain their objectives."He said that Iran would ask Rumyantsev to provide explanations about his statements.