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6-5-2003 Scotsman British diplomacy returns to Baghdad By Gethin Chamberlain IN ITS heyday, the British embassy in Baghdad was everything that might be expected of a relic of this country's colonial past: an ornate Ottoman structure in yellow sandstone set amid well-watered and beautifully laid out grounds on the banks of the river Tigris. During the years when Britain ran Iraq under a mandate which ran from 1920 to 1932, such figures as TE Lawrence and Gertrude Bell were regular visitors to the glittering parties within the walls of the 19th century building in the al-Shawwakah quarter of the Iraqi capital. Later, when pictures of a young Queen Elizabeth decorated the walls, diplomats would bathe in the swimming pool surrounded by date palms and white painted swings, play billiards or knock up on the tennis courts. The cricket pitch still echoed to the sounds of leather on willow and ladies took tea in the gardens. "When they had parties, the ladies all wore hats and the air smelt of perfume," recalled Abu Saleh, the caretaker, in an interview a short while before the recent outbreak of hostilities. But gradually, the old grandeur began to fade. The building was eventually abandoned in 1991, when the British finally decided to get out of the country at the start of the first Gulf war. It stood empty for the next dozen years, inhabited only by the caretaker who had looked after the building since 1979. Locals used the football pitch, but the buildings remained untouched. Yesterday, however, the British were back, albeit in somewhat less style than that to which they were once accustomed. Shortly after dawn they arrived with what amounted to a flat-pack embassy, shipping containers deposited on the former cricket pitch from which the skeleton staff will be expected to operate until the embassy can be restored to something of its former glory. Surveying the crumbling remains of the old building yesterday, they may have been forgiven for concluding that it could take some time. Outside, the rope on the flagpole was broken and the swimming pool stood empty, the cricket pitch long since taken over by the local dogs. Behind the 10ft high barbed wire fences, the stone work and timber of the grand old building was showing signs of premature ageing; many of the windows were broken or grimy with accumulated dirt. But inside, the pictures of the Queen, at least, had survived. An old brass cannon, the Baghdad cannon manufactured by Krupps in 1843, had escaped the looting. The billiard table, too, was still in place and Abu Saleh, who kept on working even when his employers had abandoned him, had done his best to stop the place falling into ruin. Even the old telephone switchboard was still in place when about a dozen British soldiers, carrying rifles and machine guns, entered the compound. The man who will run the new embassy is Christopher Segar, who was the former deputy head of mission in Baghdad before diplomatic ties were severed following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait more than a decade ago. However, Mr Segar, who helped close the British mission in 1991, will not be officially appointed ambassador, and the mission will not be formally called an embassy, until a new Iraqi government is in place to accept his credentials. Yesterday, standing in front of the old building, Mr Segar appeared glad to be back. "I see this as a symbol of the commitment of our government to work with the Iraqi people toward re-establishing connections and ties between our two countries which were so important in the past," he said. "We are possibly the first embassy that was not here at all at the beginning of this year that has come back to re-establish operations in the city. We have had no permanent diplomatic staff in this country since January 1991." The four British officials reopening the mission will initially work in the five modified freight containers shipped in from Kuwait, using generators for power. The intention is to have a staff of 20 in place by July. "The 'flat-pack embassy' is a new idea and we are going to see whether we can work it effectively here. It allows you to dismantle, take it away and use it somewhere else," Mr Segar added. A new embassy building will eventually be built but Mr Segar said he found the old site "a little dusty but largely as we left it". He added: "Nothing that we can see has been really taken away in any serious extent." The British presence in the building dates back to January 1920, three years after Baghdad was occupied by General Sir Stanley Maude in March 1917. The Baghdad land register records that the building was sold by Monsieur Charles Albert to the British Exchequer for 630,000 rupees. Within a year it had been transformed into the Secretariat of the British High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox. Some embassies kept staff in Baghdad during the US-led war launched on 20 March this year, while others maintained accredited representatives, but Britain is the first of the countries which broke off diplomatic ties after the invasion of Kuwait to return to Baghdad. The establishment of the office is seen as symbolically important as a sign of the return of normality between Iraq and members of the coalition which invaded it. The Russian embassy looked after British interests during its absence. The team of British diplomats is also expected to assist in the programme to rebuild Iraq, liaising with the US-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. There were a few early glitches yesterday when the flag could not be raised because the rope was broken and lorries struggled to manoeuvre the containers through the gates, but the British contingent did succeed in reinstalling the Royal coat of arms, which had been taken down for safekeeping by Abu Saleh. And Mr Segar was quick to praise the efforts of the caretaker, who got by on occasional payments from the Russian embassy, promising he would be paid back wages - and a bonus.
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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