- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - It would
not be Washington's first choice, but the long-banned Iraq Communist Party
on Sunday won the race to publish the first newspaper in Baghdad since
the fall of Saddam Hussein.
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- The eight-page "People's Path" was handed out
for free, snapped up eagerly by passers-by hungry for any kind of news
after the U.S. invasion eradicated state-run media.
-
- "Collapse of a Dictator" read the headline
under the hammer and sickle on the front page, followed by an article railing
against the abuses of Saddam's "bloody, terrorist reign."
-
- "With the dictatorship's collapse, all the wishes
of the vast majority of the Iraqi people have come true," it said,
printed around a picture of a child victim of the U.S.-led war, his head
bandaged and a tear rolling down his cheek.
-
- When U.S. forces rolled into Baghdad 11 days ago, ending
Saddam's rule and toppling a statue of him for good measure, they created
an information and authority void, with practically no electricity, no
papers, no TV and no officialdom to turn to.
-
- Angry citizens yearn for order and advice, but the last
written U.S. information came in the form of airdropped leaflets urging
people to stay calm during the war.
-
- Others have moved in to fill the void, with influential
religious leaders setting up community services, but the Communists were
the first into print.
-
- In Firdos Square in the center, Iraqis stopped in their
tracks to read the paper, amazed to see criticism of their former leader
in writing.
-
- "It is telling us about Saddam, how he did harm
to our country," said 27-year-old Khudair. "Of course we knew
it, but we have never seen it written in a newspaper before."
-
- It was not clear where the paper was printed but it was
full of praise for Kurdish leaders in north Iraq, which was free of Saddam's
control for a decade and where small Communist Party cells operated.
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- NO MORE BABEL
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- Under Saddam's 24-year-old rule Iraq's newsstands sold
only state-approved papers. Babel, the highest-circulation newspaper, belonged
to Saddam's eldest son Uday, while Thawra was the official mouthpiece of
Saddam's Baath Party.
-
- They were the last vestige of the old rule to be seen,
hitting the streets on the morning of Wednesday April 9 -- U.S. marines
rode into Baghdad on tanks.
-
- "The great Iraq will remain steadfast," read
Babel's last front-page editorial.
-
- All other parties and their media were banned, and leaders
of what was once the most powerful Communist movement in the Middle East
had long fled into exile in Britain and elsewhere.
-
- Now the official newspapers have gone, along with state-run
television and radio. Iraqis may not miss them, but they are desperate
for news. Most listen to Iranian or Kuwaiti radio, BBC Arabic or Radio
Sawa, the U.S.-sponsored pan-Arabic station.
-
- The occupying forces' own Alliance Television airs for
three hours from 8 p.m. on frequencies once used by Saddam-eulogizing state
television, but few Baghdadis have the power to tune in.
-
- If they do, they prefer to watch al-Alam, an Iranian-based
channel broadcast in Arabic which Iraqis can pick up without a satellite
dish and which first popped up just before the war.
-
- Satellite dishes, banned under Saddam but available discreetly
to the wealthy, are now being snapped up.
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