Why I back Iraq against UK

Tired and desperate, they had pleaded with doctors to save the lives of their sons and daughters.

The doctors wanted to help but all they could do was watch alongside the parents as their children slipped away.

The children's illnesses were often simple to treat and the doctors were more than able. All they needed was the medicine.

This, says Amer, is the price the Iraqi people pay for the United Nations-imposed sanctions.

This, he claims, is the reason the majority of Iraqis will not support a UN invasion of their homeland.

Amer moved to Britain from Iraq in the early Seventies when he was invited to complete a mechanical engineering degree and masters at the University of Brighton.

He met his wife, Susan, while studying and the couple have three children, Louisa, 23, Moonira, 20 and Nadia, 19.

Having started a family, Amer did not return home for 18 years.

Amer's four brothers and sisters live in Baghdad and the nearby town of Kerbela.

He prays for their safety daily but it is not the actions of Saddam Hussein's tyrannical regime that feeds his fears.

It is the looming threat of a British and US-led bombing campaign.

He said: "I will defend Iraq, not because I support Saddam Hussein but because I support the people living there.

"The British and US governments are showing a complete blindness about Iraq. They believe the Iraqi people will welcome them into their country and turn against Saddam, fighting alongside them.

"But I don't believe that will ever happen. My family do not and have never supported Saddam but they are willing to fight against the Americans. They do not see this as Saddam's war - it is the people's war, because the people are the ones who will suffer."

Amer, who lives in Telscombe Cliffs, is vehemently opposed to a war against Iraq and believes the Iraqis do not want a UN invasion. Enforced democracy, he says, is destined to fail in Iraq.

The country has never known democracy and is surrounded by totalitarian states, which it perceives as threats. Before Saddam came to power, 34 years ago, the country had been dogged by years of bloody coups. When he became president, Saddam imprisoned, exiled or killed any opposition to his rule.

It was merciless and barbaric but it gave the Iraqi people some sort of political stability.

Amer said: "The strict laws meant Iraq was a safe place. Parents were happy enough to let their children play out in the streets until late at night. I would not dare to do that in England.

"Iraqis are not happy living under Saddam but I do not believe the country will survive as a democracy. It would make it vulnerable and attempts would be made to topple the government, plunging the country back into instability."

Amer is certainly no supporter of Saddam's regime, which almost saw him killed when he returned home in 1986.

Missing his friends and concerned his daughters were being denied a vital part of their cultural heritage, he decided to return to Baghdad.

Within weeks of arriving, he was drafted in to fight in the bloody war against Iran.

He said: "I was asked to go to the front and, although I did not have to fight, I saw many dead, mutilated bodies. Muslims were fighting Muslims and it was something I profoundly disagreed with so I decided I must leave."

Having British passports, Susan, who now works at the Co-op in London Road, Brighton, and the children flew to Britain from Baghdad.

Amer deserted from the army, a crime punishable by death, and escaped over the Kurdish border. He walked 20 miles, risking being blown up in mine fields or shot by border police, before reaching Turkey.

From there, he was allowed to fly back to be with his family in Britain.

He would not return to Iraq for 15 years when he was finally granted an official pardon. He had not even been allowed back for the funerals of his mother and father.

Through the 1991 Gulf War, all he could do was watch television pictures of bombs being dropped, not knowing if his family was alive or dead.

When he finally returned with Louisa last year he found a very different Iraq to the one he left behind.

He said: "It was like a different country. I could hardly recognise the streets of Baghdad because the architecture had changed so much. People had mobile phones and satellite television and they seemed more open about the regime.

"They were still scared to be too critical of Saddam but they were certainly given more freedoms than before."

Louisa, a student, was six when she left Iraq but remembers the time she spent there and recognised her aunts and uncles when she returned.

She attended an Iraqi school while living there and remembers having to praise Saddam every morning, pledging allegiance to the government.

She said: "It was an odd feeling to return to Iraq. The thing that struck me most was what a beautiful country it is. People have the idea there is nothing but sand and mud huts in Iraq but that is simply not the case.

"Baghdad is really no different to Brighton. I did not feel threatened walking in the streets and the people were so welcoming.

"The country seemed to have a lively atmosphere and, despite everything, people still held out hope. It seemed more relaxed than when I was a child, although people did not discuss politics openly.

"Leaving was hard. I felt like I was leaving part of myself behind."

It was during this visit they saw first-hand the effects of sanctions, which Amer describes as "the biggest disgrace".

Restrictions on imports and exports mean there are few jobs and little money in Iraq.

It is a far cry from the wealthy Seventies when Saddam nationalised the oil industry, enabling more money from petroleum sales to be ploughed back into the economy.

Back then, Amer's brothers were a barrister and lecturer. Now they are unemployed, supported only by the income from their orange grove.

Amer said: "It was beautiful to see my family again. I saw for the first time a whole new generation of nieces and nephews. It was a delight."

But the visit left a sour taste in Amer and Louisa's mouths, when they called in at Kerbela Hospital and Yarmouk Hospital in Baghdad.

"I could not believe my eyes," said Amer. "There were so many ill children who could have easily been cured if only the doctors had the medication. Many of them were suffering malnutrition and the doctors were powerless to help them. The parents had taken them into hospital with an empty hope.

"The saddest sight of all was seeing parents leaving the hospital carrying the bodies of their dead children in their arms.

"It was heartbreaking. It is hard to believe human beings are capable of such cruelty. This was the making not of Saddam Hussein but of the UN."

He was told 85 per cent of the children had cancer or leukaemia. He believes this is as a result of exposure to the radioactive remnants of weapons used by Allied forces in 1991, like depleted uranium shells.

Amer predicts war in Iraq will mean more suffering and that the time for action was in 1991 when the US should have supported the Iraqi uprising after the war.

"The US encouraged the people of Iraq to rise up against Saddam, then left them to be slaughtered," he said.

"The people who once trusted the West were left feeling betrayed. They have not forgotten those who were killed."

Having worked in business, Amer is now completing a course at the University of Brighton and plans to teach physics.

He is campaigning against war in Iraq with Sussex Action for Peace and will attend a public meeting on the issue at the Brighthelm Centre in Brighton at 7.30pm on Wednesday.