Projecting defiance and unity, Iraqis vote Tuesday

The dozens of photographs hanging in a Baghdad school constitute a curious family album. Shot over a 20-year period, the images reverently show Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with children – receiving their gifts, embracing them with smiling hugs, doting over infants, and dispensing presidential kisses with the apparent aplomb of a king.

The photos are meant to deepen the mystique and personality cult of Mr. Hussein – and even to win him votes in Tuesday's referendum to add seven years to his term.

The result is not in doubt: Iraqis vote "yes" or "no" on ballot papers. Hussein is the only candidate. And after the last vote, in 1995, the official "yes" tally was 99.96 percent.

While the US dismisses this poll as a sham, analysts say Hussein is using it to send two messages: to signal to the United States that Iraqis are unified against the Americans, and to remind Iraqis that Hussein's government is as strong as ever.

"It's not about 99.8 or 99.9 percent – it's about showing [Hussein's] people and the world that he is in control," says Volker Perthes, a Mideast expert with the Foundation for Science and Politics, an independent advisory body to the German government.

As Iraq faces the prospect of war with the United States aimed at ending Hussein's rule, such support appears to run more deeply among those who have been close to Iraq's leader, and could have most to lose if he were toppled.

"I hope God will give me long life, so I can photograph [Hussein] more," says Hussein Muhamed Ali, who took the collection of photos of Hussein with the children now on display. He has worked as an official photographer since 1970. The vote, he says, is a "day of challenge to the aggressive [American] people. We say 'yes,' not only on paper – we write it in blood, with all the feelings of the heart."

The last referendum was organized shortly after the defection to Jordan of Hussein's two sons-in-law, who revealed new details about Iraq's proscribed program of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Mr. Perthes says. The purpose of Tuesday's vote is the same as it was then.

"People outside and inside Iraq were wondering if the power of Saddam would gradually break down," Perthes says. "The referendum shows that state and regime power is present in any village. That is the message."

Against a steady drumbeat of war coming from Washington – where both houses of Congress last week voted to support President George Bush in any war to topple the Iraqi leader – Iraq is trying to forestall a tough new UN resolution that will begin open debate in the Security Council on Wednesday.

US officials are trying to incorporate a trigger for war in the resolution, if Iraq does not fully comply with aggressive, unfettered inspections. Baghdad has said repeatedly that it no longer has WMD programs, and wants compliance to yield an end of 12 years of sanctions.

While many in Washington believe that opposition to Hussein would translate into support for any US invading force, Iraqis caution that the brutal realities of sanctions – which most Iraqis blame on America – and the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi children have turned Iraqis against the US.

"You might find people here who oppose the government, who might want changes, but the majority of people think the US is trying to destroy Iraq, and do not see the US as liberators," says Saad Naji Jawad, a political scientist at the University of Baghdad. "If change comes from outside, it will not be digestible to Iraqis. No patriot in the world would accept a foreign government to rule him."

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