An Iraqi Czech's view of the war
As war rages in Iraq, it may come as a surprise that the Czech Republic itself has its own Iraqi community. This dates back to the days of communism, when many students from the Arab world studied on scholarships at Czech universities. Many stayed - sometimes to work, sometimes for political reasons, and often because they found a Czech partner. This was the case of the Iraqi engineer, Sulaiman Fahad, who has spent most of the last forty years in Prague and today has Czech citizenship. David Vaughan caught up with Mr Fahad to gauge the feelings of Iraqi Czechs, nearly all of whom are strongly opposed to Saddam Hussain's regime, as the war unfolds.
"In Prague there is a club called the Iraqi Club and it includes a variety of people who are here for a long time, students, workers or employers. The second group are what you could call independent persons who do not associate with the club and the third group are representatives of the Iraqi opposition, a branch of the Iraqi opposition in London. "
War has now broken out. How do Iraqis living here in the Czech Republic feel about the war?
"My opinion is that this pre-emptive war, this pre-emptive strike against Iraq is against the UN Charter. It has nothing to do with moral values, it has nothing to do with international laws. I think that the majority of Iraqi Czech citizens living in this country are against this war. The majority of us have relatives in Iraq - what will happen to them? What will be the consequence of this war? "
On the other hand, you've lived in Iraq and in the Czech Republic -and indeed in Czechoslovakia under the previous regime. You know what it is like to live under a dictatorship. Is there not a certain validity to the argument that if you can remove a dictatorship that there is a moral justification and even obligation to try and do something about it?
"Just consider -if any of the former Czech dissidents or members of the opposition under the communist regime had called on the White House, the United States, the UK and said come and bomb this country, come and destroy Prague because of this regime -what would have been the response of the citizens of this country? Bombs cannot differentiate between civilians and soldiers and to say that the deaths of innocent victims are "collateral damages" -that is a tragedy! My God, these are human beings!"
