AMMAN, 1 March 2004 — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is to deliver a message from ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to his elder daughter Raghad who lives in Jordan, sources close to her told AFP yesterday.
“Raghad Saddam Hussein, the elder daughter of the ousted Iraqi president, was contacted by the ICRC and they will soon give her a message that Saddam wrote her,” one of the sources said. “This is expected to take place within 24 hours in Amman and Raghad will write a reply to her father, which the ICRC will take to him.”
Raghad and her sister Rana have sought refuge in Jordan with their nine children since July 31. An ICRC spokesman in Jordan, Moin Qassis, confirmed that “a message from the former Iraqi president will soon be handed over to his family”, but he declined to discuss the nature of the message.
The message was written by Saddam when he was visited by two representatives of the ICRC — a doctor and an Arabic-speaking delegate — on Feb. 21 at an undisclosed location, he said.
“The delay in delivering it was motivated by practicalities,” Qassis said. Saddam “could have written several messages but he only wrote one”, he said, adding that the ICRC would also take a message back to Saddam from any member of his family in keeping with the humanitarian agency’s policy.
A special four-page form is devoted to messages delivered by the ICRC from prisoners to their relatives and vice versa.
The first page bears the logo of the organization and the words in English and Arabic “Red Cross Message”. The page is divided into two parts.
