The royal crest gleamed above the entrance to the British embassy in Baghdad for the first time in 13 years yesterday, as diplomats prepared to reopen the mission next week. The embassy's guard, Mahdi Alouneh, 58, and his son Salah, had looked after the crest since 1990, when diplomats hurriedly abandoned the mission in the run-up to the first Gulf war. Yesterday they finally received permission to put it back.
Mr Alouneh and his sons and nephews had protected the embassy from looters over the past 13 years, armed with a single Yugoslav-made assault rifle. Amid the anarchy of Baghdad they saw four looters enter the embassy through the roof and prepare to steal two portraits of the Queen and some gas canisters. "I shouted to them, 'What are you doing?' and showed I had a gun," Mr Alouneh said yesterday. "They dropped everything and ran away." The only losses are a couple of air conditioning units. The building, a colonial-style mansion in a prime position on the banks of the River Tigris, is now protected by British paratroops, who have checked it for mines and booby traps.
Capt Danny Matthews, the commanding officer, said: "Mahdi did a really good job of protecting the embassy. "It was clearly abandoned in a great hurry because they have left behind all kinds of sensitive material, which we have cleared away along with 13 years of dust." British officials said the mission would reopen early next week. Diplomats are rushing to fly the flag again as part of coalition plans to show that life is returning to normal at the end of the war and the spate of looting which followed the entry of American forces into Baghdad. Reopening the compound will prove to be a major security headache and experts are still debating which parts will be safe to use. Returning diplomats will find an embassy frozen in time, with nothing changed since the eve of the first Gulf war. In the embassy club, the optics are awaiting the next gin bottle, while the piano needs only to be tuned and the pool table dusted. On the wall is the winter 1990-91 fixture list for the Baghdad darts league, which was abandoned because of the war. Maybe now the Bent Arrows and the Double Bulls, who were due to meet on Feb 23, 1991, can finally hold that match. |