- guardian.co.uk, Sunday March 23 2003 05.03 GMT
I am a lifelong enemy of the regime, and have always dreamt of the day when I will live in a free and safe homeland. However, this war is not the road through which I want to realise my dream. For decades, Western allies have befriended Saddam, giving him the means to brutally oppress his people. At his most vulnerable after the first Gulf war, the US and allied forces imposed sanctions that until today prevent Iraqis from overthrowing Saddam.
The day when the first missiles were fired was a black day in our history. A mandate akin to the 'law of the jungle' was reinforced and the British government was enthusiastically part of it. The blood of the Iraqi people, and the looming occupation of Iraq and the ramifications throughout the already boiling region, will be something we will have to contend with and carry on our conscience.
- Anas Altikriti, 34, Leeds, West Yorkshire
I was born on 5 April 1980. That day Saddam's 'amn arrived at our family home and rounded up my extended family. We were later driven by army trucks to the Iranian border. As Shias, we were being persecuted for our religion - my aunts and uncles used to frequent mosques.
We nearly lost my mother on our journey into Iran. She was hemorrhaging heavily. We eventually made it into Iran's refugee camps, where we were reunited with my father who had been detained separately.
My aunt, her husband, her two year old daughter and one of my uncles were also detained. My aunt was raped, soaked with fuel along with her young daughter and set afire in front of her husband. He soon followed the same fate. As for my uncle, we are unsure of his whereabouts.
We spent several months in Iran, nearly six years in Syria, six years in Greece, before moving to Canada in the early 1990s. We struggled to find a country that welcomed refugees. After eight years in Canada, I moved to the UK to enter university in 1999.
I still have a great number of family members in Iraq. We have been told that many in Baghdad say they are willing to be collateral damage as long as Saddam is overthrown. There is no realistic method of removing Saddam apart from military intervention.
- Sama Hadad, 23, Medical student, St George's Hospital
I came to Britain as a Kurdish asylum seeker in 1997. To be a Kurd in Iraq is to be a third class citizen. In 1985, my entire family was arrested. My brothers were part of an underground movement so they were brutally tortured. Along with others in my extended family, one was eventually killed. I once applied for a Masters course but was denied entry because I refused to join the Ba'ath party. I eventually became a lawyer and was for some years married to a PKU politician. Under this onus, I campaigned vigorously with the women's movement but was forced to flee after extremist Islamic groups threatened my life.
Nobody wants war. Thousands of people have fled to the cold mountains which have no clean water or refugee camps. The border is littered with mines. If the war does not end in a few days, there will be a serious humanitarian disaster. But peace is no better. Peace with Saddam is like peace with the devil. With all due respect to anti-war demonstrators, it's laughable to see communists and Islamists marching on the same platform - all they demonstrate is their anti-Americanism.
The Kurds must be part of the future plan for Iraq. Or else, the region will never see stability. There is no point in removing Saddam only to replace him with a dictator just like him, only pro-American. I want to return home to Kurdistan where my parents live but not until there is freedom and political stability.
- Mehabad Salih, 35, Kurdish asylum seeker, London
I left Iraq at the age of four, and lived in Iran for two years before arriving in London 18 years ago. I left with my mother and four sisters to join our father who had already fled. I now work as a designer in London, but I worry for the population of Iraq especially my family. We have never had choices or a democratically elected President. I think the average person understands our plight, but politicians remain ignorant to what the Iraqi people really need. The population has suffered too much already and the war brings nothing but a promise of anger and a chemical wasteland. I am also concerned about US designs on Iraq. The Iraqi people do not deserve to have one dictator replaced by another under a facade of democracy. We need help to get rid of Saddam, without weapons and we need to choose our own democratic leader.
- Susan Salehi, 24, Iraqi Kurd, Designer in London
My parents lived in Baghdad; my father, a member of the Shia opposition, was an electrical engineer and my mother a Math teacher. One night 22 years ago, the 'amn came to arrest my father and my pregnant mother, but neither was at home. My father fled to Iran and my mother to Northern Iraq, not knowing if they'd ever see each other again. While in hiding my mother gave birth to me. A year later, by sheer coincidence, my parents found each other. My mother learnt that Saddam's regime had executed her sister, two brothers and her baby niece. My father continued to actively oppose the regime from Iran, but was always fearful of what the regime would do to his family in Iraq. He never communicated with his family, afraid to reveal a link between him and them.
In 1987 we came to the UK. My father still works for the opposition. I now study medicine at Imperial College where I have set up the Iraqi Society.
This war will not be like the last Gulf War. The US plans to rule Iraq so perhaps the infrastructure will largely remain intact. There are signs that Saddam's army will not fight for him because it is not loyalty but fear that drives them. With a weakened Saddam, the people of Iraq will rise up against the regime. But will the US allow genuine democracy to be established - a government of the people, by the people, for the people?
- Yasser Alaskary, 22, Medical Student, Imperial College, London
I'm an Arab Iraqi born and brought up in Baghdad. Following the Gulf War, my family realised that we had no future in Iraq and so we left our home in 1991 and came to the UK. I became a British citizen in 1996 and after graduating with a law degree; I now work as a management consultant.
Although I supported the Gulf War (after all Saddam Hussein had invaded a neighbouring country) and fully support regime change in Iraq, I am vehemently against this war. It is unprovoked, unjustified and unsupported by the majority of the international community.
It's all too easy to forget the human tragedy of war for the people having to survive through it. I still remember the horrific details of life during the first Gulf War very vividly. Today, Iraqis are paying a dear price for the mistakes of someone they never chose. They never asked for any of this, and they are trapped between a dictator that doesn't care about them and a president obsessed with war
I fear what this war will bring there is too much uncertainty about the outcome and no guarantees of success. If we get this wrong, we'll never be forgiven - and rightly so.
- Juan Allos, 24, Arab Iraqi (Catholic)
My father, brother and I fled to Moscow 23 years ago after soldiers threatened to rape me on account of my mother's political activities. She was an active member of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP) and the Iraqi Women's League. My father was an international law lecturer and had contacts who were able smuggle us out in 1980. I was 16; my brother was 14. After attending medical school in Moscow, I arrived in London 13 years ago.
There is a feeling deep inside of me I find it difficult to articulate when I think of Saddam and all the fear he has instilled in the Iraqi people, and all he torture he has inflicted upon innocent civilians. We have been deprived of living in peace for many yeras and even outside Iraq I do not find tranquility and continue to fear Iraqi people. Saddam has made us very cynical, but we need international help, not bombs. The Iraqi people are now exhausted and depressed. Since this crisis has begun, the media has consistently asked what sect we are from. It is a stupid question used to attempt to segregate us. I am an Iraqi, anything else I consider irrelevant.
- Dr. Shatha Besarani, 38, London
I was forced to leave Iraq one year before Saddam had assumed the presidency in Iraq in 1979. In late 1977 Saddam instructed his apparatus of violence to wage ruthless campaign of terror against those who did not support, adhere or show obedience to his murderous rule. I am one of those Iraqis who resisted his internal policies of genocide and external policies of war and aggression. Thus I had no choice but to flee Iraq or face imprisonment or even death.
The people of Iraq once again face the danger of invasion and military, which could only bring death and destruction. The Iraqi people have already endured terrible suffering as a result of two external wars Iran-Iraq (1980-1988) and the Gulf war (1991) and continue internal war, in addition to 12 years of economic sanctions. No doubt the majority of Iraqis want to get rid of Saddam's dictatorial regime and to bring a genuine democratic change guided by the rule of law and parliamentary democracy. But war, invasion and foreign military occupation cannot lead to a true democracy. War is worse and most destructive alternative. I fear the US will retain control of Iraq long after Saddam is removed and will not hand power to Iraqis for years to come. I fear the US will destroy Iraq's infrastructure.
- Abdullah Mushin, London
