SHE may not have photographs of her private meeting with Saddam Hussein, but Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali could still relate precisely the time she met the former Iraqi president 19 years ago.
It was in 2000 when she was asked by her husband, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was then the fourth prime minister, to go to Iraq to send humanitarian aid.
The United Nations (UN) had imposed sanctions on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Dr Siti Hasmah went in with female members of a non-governmental organisation and some doctors. Dr Mahathir’s instruction to her was to give a first-hand assessment of the ground situation in Iraq.
“He told me not to request a courtesy call on Saddam, but if Saddam were to ask to meet me, I could go (meet him),” she said.
It was after a few days she was there that the then Iraqi ambassador to Malaysia informed her that Saddam wanted to meet her. And that she was to tell no one.
“I didn’t tell anyone, not even the head of our security team there. I was having a discussion with the team when I saw this burly Iraqi looking and nodding at me. That was the signal. I had to follow him.
“Dr Raj Karim kept asking me where I was going. I didn’t tell her because I didn’t even know where I would be taken to. I was in the car with the driver and the burly man, and we were taken round and round the city. Then we stopped to pick up the deputy prime minister then, Tariq Aziz.
“Again we went round and round the city until they brought me to the palace.
“I entered the room and saw Saddam. He got up and walked up to me, shook my hand and thanked the government of Malaysia and Dr Mahathir for helping in his appeal to lift the sanctions.
“We spoke for a good half hour before I left. As we walked out of the room, I saw above me this huge figurine of an eagle. He told me that it was made out of ammunition shells. The head of the eagle was facing Iran,” she said.
Upon returning to the state house, she received a shelling from the head of the Malaysian security team.
“He said he could lose his job if anything had happened to me. But nothing happened. He said I should have told him about the meeting with Saddam and that he would not have told anyone about it.
“Even Dr Mahathir didn’t know until after I met Saddam. I called him on the satellite phone, conveyed Saddam’s message and all he wanted to know was when I was coming home,” she said, laughing heartily.
But it was a heart- breaking trip for her. A visit to the Amiriyah bomb shelter site, where some 400 civilians were killed by two United States bombs, was particularly unsettling.
“We were told by the guide to recite the al-Fatihah before entering the site. We could see palm prints and human skin imprinted on the walls of the bomb shelter.”
She said they were told before the trip that they could not bring in lead pencils for the children.
“We were told the lead can be used to make bombs, but we weren’t bringing in billions of lead pencils. So we brought in crayons and books for the children.”
Another memorable trip to a war-torn country, but this time with Dr Mahathir, was to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
It was not a planned visit. In fact, they were in Rome as part of their Mediterranean holiday and had bumped into some soldiers in uniforms with the word “MALBATT” emblazoned on them.
“They saw us and came over. We asked why they were here. They said they had finished their tour of duty and were going home.
“They asked Dr Mahathir to visit their camp in Bosnia.
“Of course, Dr Mahathir got really excited. He had wanted to go but I was very firm with him. I asked him to make sure that it was safe for him to go.
“Datuk Seri Najib Razak was the defence minister then. So we contacted Najib and he said it was okay to go, but he advised me to wear pants, not baju kurung, to go there.
“I remembered clearly that it was a Friday that we went. We flew from Italy into Bosnia.
“Our plane had to fly in a designated zone.
“If you fly outside the zone, they cannot guarantee that the plane will not be shot at.
“We were received by British forces, who were part of the UN peacekeepers, at the airport and we were then transported to the camp via a helicopter. Before boarding the helicopter, we had a briefing.
“First, we had to wear a bulletproof jacket. We would be crossing waters, so we also had to wear a life jacket. So the pilot said should the helicopter crash into the water, we should swim away from it.
“I looked at my husband and he looked back. Both of us are non-swimmers. The jackets are heavy. How are we going to swim? We will sink into the water with the helicopter.”
Even after they landed at the airstrip, there was still a distance to go. Their ground transportation was a tank. A military tank to be exact.
“I was so afraid, especially for my husband. He was putting his head out to take photos. I pulled him down. There were already incidents of grenades being thrown into tanks. Even in the helicopter he was busy taking photos.”
Despite the mode of travel, she said that they didn’t regret going there.
“Our men were there. They were waiting for us. They had cooked Malaysian food. We performed the Friday prayers together.”
She spoke proudly of the Malaysian forces who make up UN peacekeeping teams all over the world.
“They have created a good image for Malaysia, making themselves known as good peacekeeping forces.
“They set up hospitals. That is the first thing that our forces do anywhere. There were surgeons and doctors, too.”
In Bosnia, the MALBATT team was not only treating wounded military personnel but also civilians.