Rebuilding lives

An Iraqi asylum seeker living in Cricklewood, Mr Albhdly was told four members of his family had been killed as they drove between Nasiryah and Shatra in southern Iraq. The two women and two children died when a missile struck their car.

Standing up to speak at a meeting to discuss ways of rebuilding Iraq at the Dar Al-Islam Foundation in Anson Road, Cricklewood the main mosque for Britain's Iraqi population Mr Albhdly's voice trembled as he told of his shock at what had happened.

"Concrete can be rebuilt. Human lives and souls cannot. How can that be compensated? No other Muslim nation can understand the special tragedy that Iraq is going through," he said.

Mr Albhdly himself took part in the ill-fated 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein. He was shot and imprisoned, but escaped to Iran and sought asylum in the UK.

His painful words interrupted the enthusiastic debate among members of various Iraqi groups all broadly supportive of the war as a way of removing Saddam Hussein as to how and by whom Iraq should be run in a post-Saddam era.

Zuhair Al-Naher, from the moderate Islamic Daawa party, said: "The worst thing possible is if the Coalition imposes its rule on Iraq. It would be absolutely disastrous."

And 21-year-old Abtehale al-Hussaini, from the Iraqi Prospect Organisation, set up by young British Iraqis who want to help Iraq become a democracy, said there was no question of carving up the country into separate states. "We will find that once Saddam has gone, Iraqis want to live together. An interim Iraqi authority should be a true reflection of the Iraqi people," she said.

April 8, 2003 14:00