An anti-war conference of Arab and international activists paused as the Iraqi president's capture was announced. Amira Howeidy was there British MP George Galloway -- "Saddam's friend" according to his critics -- was probably the first to break the news of the ousted Iraqi president's capture on Sunday. The lounge of the Egyptian Press Syndicate's fourth floor was packed with hundreds of Arab and international anti-war activists, including Galloway, participants at the Second Cairo Conference. It was around midday and rows of riot police had positioned themselves around the syndicate. More security precautions were evident in the long line of parked police vehicles facing the building up to Ramsis Street. The day before Egyptian left-wing activist Kamal Khalil had called for a demonstration outside the syndicate at noon. He was addressing representatives of the anti-war and anti- globalisation movement from Britain, the US and Europe which had mobilised millions against the war on Iraq. His suggestion was taken seriously by the security apparatus and by day break the area surrounding the building had been turned into a security cordon. But by midday the conference's participants were otherwise engaged, immersed in the task of verifying the news of Saddam's capture. Whatever interest those in the noisy and cigarette-smoke filled hall had had in the police outside had now been transferred to the occupation forces in Iraq. A few hours later, the conference held its scheduled press conference ahead of the closing session. Veteran British politician Tony Benn, former US attorney-general Ramsy Clark, former Humanitarian Coordinator with the United Nations in Iraq Dennis Halliday, John Rees of the Stop the War Coalition and Azzam Tamimi, director of the London-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought, were invited up to the podium. It was clear by then that the fall of the former Arab president had completely hijacked the last hours of the conference. Chairing the press conference, Mohamed Sami, one of conference's organisers, began by listing the names of the organisations that had funded the two-day meeting. "Will you please just start with the press conference," an angry journalist interrupted him. "What will the conference say about Saddam's arrest?" demanded another. "We don't know it's true yet and that they got him," replied someone from the podium. But Galloway had taken the microphone. "The prisoner is Saddam," he said, "he's been paraded on the TV screens and he's been virtually humiliated. His enemies are having a good laugh but it won't be the last laugh," at which point applause filled the hall. Responding to demands from the auditorium to state the conference's position on Saddam's capture, Sami argued that the Cairo Declaration's draft committee would have to hold a meeting first. But this was not enough for some. "Do you need a meeting to decide what your position is on the arrest of a man who was an Arab head of state?" screamed Abdel-Mohsen Hammouda, an Egyptian lawyer. "Have you no shame? Where did Arab valour go?" he continued. Lebanese journalist Kamil Dagher objected to what he viewed as pro- Saddam sentiments. "Have you forgotten what this man did? He killed and he tortured". Words such as "traitor!" and "agent of Saddam" flew across the hall. Tamimi responded that "we did not oppose the war because of Saddam. There are thousands of prisoners in Iraq now so it's not just about one man. Let us not fall into the trap of reducing the whole thing to the person of Saddam." Stop the War's Rees agreed. "We are the most important story today because activists all around the world are standing with the resistance no matter who leads it," he said. "They said the resistance is the remittances of the [Ba'ath] regime. What will you say tomorrow? They also said they were staying in Iraq out of fear of Saddam's return. Why don't you leave tomorrow?" Rees continued as a frenzy of applause filled the hall. The fall of the ousted president continued to overshadow the conference's closing session which focussed on the final declaration. Some participants wanted to include a paragraph on the arrest while others were of the opinion that it was premature to make anything of the event. It took the intervention of Galloway and Egyptian opposition MP Hamdeen Sabahi to convince those present that the conference should not be sidetracked by the event. At the time of Al-Ahram Weekly going to press the drafting committee had not met for the final declaration. Speaking to the Weekly, Galloway voiced faith in the Iraqi resistance. "It's not controlled by the strings of a man on the run near Tikrit," he said. "The capture of Saddam will not lead to the collapse of the resistance." The British MP argued that there are more important questions to worry about. "The men in Washington and London are preparing for a second Sykes- Pico. Is the Arab world ready for another 100 years of injustice? This is the question for the Arab world to answer."
