NGOs sceptical that security will improve

While initial bursts of celebratory gunfire and people dancing in the streets marked the capture of the former dictator, Saddam Hussein, on Saturday evening, international aid agencies remaining in Baghdad said the event was unlikely to have a positive effect on the security situation. Business quickly returned to normal, as people questioned each other about whether the man in American custody really was their former president. "I don’t think it will help us as an NGO," Heide Feldemann, the programme director of Help, a German NGO, told IRIN in Baghdad. "People are happy, but it’s no big event." Help distributes what it calls hygiene kits - soap, shampoo, blankets and the like, to families who have been evicted from their homes, mainly from northern Iraq. "I think it could create a better security situation. Maybe the Americans will have a little better reputation, but in general, it’s a game just as the war was a game." Enfants du Monde, a French agency focused on children, said its workers would stay indoors until they could assess the situation. "It’s too early to say, but I think it won’t change our work," Michel Havel, a project director for the group, told IRIN. Saddam Hussein was caught in a "spider hole" that looked like a small underground bunker in a military video shown to journalists. Saddam was found near a farmhouse 15 miles south of Tikrit, his home town, over the weekend. He had a long beard, bushy hair and was being cooperative with the US troops who found him, according to Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of US ground forces in Iraq. Two other Iraqis captured with Saddam were not identified. On Sunday, Governing Council entourages wheeled around in big four-wheel-drive vehicles, horns and Arabic music blaring, encouraging other drivers to join an impromptu parade. However, they were largely ignored. The temporary government named by US-led administrators has been accused of not being representative of people on the streets of Iraq, although its members are expected to gain an upper hand in any future government. Some Iraqis said they had always known that Saddam would be caught, but questioned how long it would take for the economy to improve now that he was no longer in power. "If the economic situation remains bad, everyone can become Saddam Hussein to the Americans," Nameh Fahed, a 38-year-old taxi driver, told IRIN as he waited for fares. "The justification for Americans to be here was to get Saddam. Now they should get out." Another man said even if he did not support a movement of former regime fighters, he still felt somewhat disappointed that the formerly much-feared leader had not put up a fight. "Saddam now seems like a normal person. I'm not sure how to feel," Khalid Isa, a construction foreman, told IRIN. "He persuaded people to support him with money, food, gas and security. If all of those are provided now by a new government, no one will feel the need to fight." One of the Americans heading up reconstruction in Iraq said he hoped the capture would bring calm to the country. "Anything that contributes to the increased security and stability in the country will help nongovernmental organisations do their jobs," Lewis Lucke, the mission director for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) told IRIN. "There was a residual fear that the Ba'thists would come back. Now, the head of the Ba'thists is gone." Coalition forces did not expect attacks on them to cease, Sanchez said, noting that Saddam had been identified by former colleagues currently in detention. He was being kept in an undisclosed location. "We are in the process of doing more conclusive tests, but we had positive identification on him from some other detainees," said Sanchez. A US soldier said the capture of Saddam constituted an important indicator to the Iraqi people that he could not return to power. "I think the Iraqi people will be free to start their future now," Master Sgt Seth Mabus, who works in the Combined Joint Task Force-7 centre coordinating military operations in Iraq, told IRIN. "The Coalition is going to persevere. It's not just about him, it's about the rest of the country as well." Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he hoped the capture of Saddam would bring stability to the country. "The Secretary-General considers that the capture of Saddam Hussein, the epitome of the former regime, is an important event," a UN spokesman said in a statement released in New York on Sunday. "It offers an opportunity to give fresh impetus to the search for peace and stability in Iraq on the basis of an inclusive and fully transparent process," the statement said. The spokesman said Annan reiterated the UN's readiness "to do everything possible to help Iraqis, if asked and as circumstances permit". In the northern governorate of Arbil there were expressions of joy on Sunday similar to those in Baghdad. As the news broke, gunfire filled the air, and by evening residents had taken to their cars, honking horns and cheering as they drove around streets in the centre of the provincial capital. While Kurds - who were among the worst affected by Saddam Hussein’s regime - were celebrating the former dictator's capture, NGOs working in the north were looking forward to an improvement in security to carry out their work. Qasim Shawqi, Counterpart International’s manager of security operations in Arbil, told IRIN that Saddam’s capture could disrupt the terrorist network that had caused many attacks and deaths since the fall of the regime. Cities such as Mosul that had suffered repeated attacks could now be easier to work in, he hoped. "Maybe the terrorists can make small attacks, but not like it has been." Sam Jones, Counterpart’s programme manager for Iraq, said he also hoped the security situation would improve now that Saddam had been caught. "One positive outcome is reassurance in the minds of everyday Iraqis and the elimination of fear, and this may make the operating environment more hospitable. It will have a psychological effect on people who now will realise there’s no chance of Saddam Hussein’s regime being resurrected. He’s not hanging over people’s heads any more." However, he cautioned that is was too early to know if anything would change dramatically as nobody knew what role Saddam had played in the resurgency in recent months. "It’s too much to say it will change the tide of the overall reconstruction effort, but it will hopefully improve the atmosphere." Jones told IRIN that Counterpart’s operations in Mosul had been hampered by insecurity. When he visited the city last week, he was told by another NGO’s security officer that he should not be there because of the danger. Security in the area had deteriorated rapidly in recent times, he noted. However, yesterday’s news had given him hope that Counterpart's work there and in Kirkuk, another area of tension, would now proceed more easily. Mission East’s country representative, Brandon Pustejovsky, told IRIN from Dahuk that he hoped the capture of Saddam would mean a better working environment for NGOs in the north. Security had deteriorated in recent weeks, even in the Kurdish region, with car bombings in relatively calm cities such as Arbil. Anyone associated with Coalition forces had become more of a target, and these included Westerners and aid workers, Pustejovsky said. "I think there has been so much pent-up fear, and now there’s a large sense of relief and people will realise that the organisations here are actually genuinely trying to help people and there’s no conspiracy and Saddam hasn’t been paid a million dollars to skip the country or whatever." He also hoped that better security would lead to more NGOs coming to the north, and also hasten the return of the UN, which has only a limited presence in the Kurdish region. "I’d certainly hope so, because the UN has skills and resources that are needed here." Back on the streets of Arbil people were determined to enjoy the moment and talked of feasting, dancing and singing. But for some, the day of celebration has been marred. Dr Shakir Samad of Arbil’s Emergency Hospital told IRIN that one person had died and another 10 been injured in the celebratory gunfire. He said the toll would undoubtedly rise, and there would have been others killed who had not been brought into the hospital. "This is the custom here. But despite the problems, this is a happy day for the Kurdish people, because Saddam Hussein did many bad things to us."