Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

There are many grounds for advocating the complete disarmament of Saddam Hussein, but one that those who value freedom of expression should support is that of doing justice to the memory of Farzad Bazoft. The Iranian-born journalist with The Observer newspaper tried to expose the Iraqi dictator as a menace to the world and was hanged for his efforts in Baghdad on 15 March 1990.

Some background: on 17 August 1989, a huge explosion shook Qaqa, 35 kilometres from Baghdad. Bazoft, an eager freelancer, who was in Iraq to cover the upcoming elections in the Iraqi Kurdish community that Saddam was gassing to death, secretly visited the Qaqa site twice, where he collected soil samples. He was accompanied by a British nurse, Daphne Parish. On their return to Baghdad, the two were arrested on charges of espionage. In custody, Bazoft "confessed" to having spied for Israel, but it is generally agreed that his confession was completely involuntary. Under Saddam, torture has become a routine procedure.

The Observer and the British authorities denied that he was on any kind of intelligence mission, but there were rumours at the time that he was collecting intelligence for the British and possibly, through them, for Israel. On 10 March 1990, after a spurious trial, Bazoft and Parish were found guilty of espionage. Parish was sentenced to 15 years in prison; Bazoft was sentenced to death. He was hanged on March 15. On 16 July 1990, in response to a plea by the Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, the Iraqis released Parish.

Bazoft's suspicions about the nature of the Qaqa explosion were well founded. On 28 March 1990, a sting operation intercepted a shipment of capacitors — vital for manufacturing nuclear weapons — at Heathrow Airport, bound for Iraq. On 10 April that year, a shipment of cylinders to Iraq, for use in a possible "supergun" capable of launching missiles hundreds of kilometres, was intercepted. Despite these warnings, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is charged with ensuring nuclear non-proliferation, gave Iraq a clean bill of health as late as May 1990. However, after the first Gulf War, the IAEA announced that as of August 1990, Iraq was only "12 to 18 months" from its first atomic bomb and Qaqa, in particular, was one of its most important nuclear facilities.

In attempting to expose Saddam Hussein's nuclear designs, Farzad Bazoft became a victim of the tyranny he had chosen to investigate. But his and Daphne Parish's investigation helped show the world the brutal nature of the regime which thought itself fit to possess such awesome power.

Writing about regimes such as Saddam's, Adrian Hamilton, deputy editor of The Observer from 1989 to1993, noted:

"The face they present to the outside world — the face they present to foreign diplomats, the international press and even the business and other communities — is one of accommodation and pragmatism. If you never go beyond that level there is no reason to feel there is anything else. Actual power, however, is exercised through a network of security forces held severally, and competitively, at the centre. These are more than just an instrument of oppression. The generals and the agents are held by favours and obligations, as well as fear."

We would do well to remember this.

Diarist of the day: Andre Gid鼯b>, 5 February 1931

"The mother-in-law of Davidson (who is making a bust of me at whose house I lunch today), a charming old lady of eighty-four, when -- on the point of lighting a cigarette after the meal -- I asked her if smoking bothers her, tell us that a similar question was put to her, before 1870 by Bismarck in a train between Paris and Saint-Germain in which she happened to be alone with him. To which she replied at once: 'Sir, I do not know, No one has ever smoked in my presence.'
Bismarck immediately had the train stopped so that he could change to another compartment."