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Jordan axes Saddam's new novel "Get out of
here, curse you!"
26.6.2005
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AMMAN, June 26 (Reuters) - Jordan has banned
Saddam Hussein's new novel on the grounds the tale
of an Arab tribesman who defeats a foreign intruder
could hurt relations between the two countries,
censors and the publisher said on Sunday.
"Get out of here, curse you!," believed to have been
penned by the ousted Iraqi leader before the
U.S.-led war, was set to be released in Jordan and
other Arab countries on Thursday by a Jordanian
company with the permission of Saddam's family.
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Former dictator
Saddam Hussein
Photo : AP |
"Publishing this novel will harm the Iraqi-Jordanian
relationship and we are keen to have the best
relations with Iraq. Jordan will not approve its
publication. If they want to publish it they have to
do it abroad," Ahmad al-Qudah, head of the
government's Press and Publication Department, told
Reuters.
The publisher said he had printed 10,000 copies for
distribution in Jordan and other Arab countries,
including Iraq, after winning initial permission. He
said censors changed their mind after a local
newspaper reported the upcoming launch.
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Raghad Saddam Hussein
Photo : CNN |
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"They gave us the okay
from day one, but with all this publicity the
censors called and told us to stop everything," the
publisher told Reuters, asking his name and his
company not be printed for fear of government
reprisals.
"I will change the cover and publish it abroad. This
book is going to be published in the Arab world, I
tell you that."
Under Jordanian law, the department has authority to
censor books published in Jordan, a close U.S. ally.
Relations between Jordan and Iraq were strained
after reports that a Jordanian was behind a suicide
bombing which killed 125 people south of Baghdad in
February, prompting Iraqi protesters to break into
the embassy. The two countries briefly recalled
their envoys over the incident.
The publisher said Saddam's daughter Raghad, who
lives in Amman, had given him permission to publish
the book, in which the daughter writes a dedication
to her jailed father.
A copy of the book was stored in Baghdad's
Information Ministry ready for publication when the
war broke out in 2003.
SADDAM THE AUTHOR
Saddam, facing war crime charges, was credited with
writing other books including "Zabiba and the King"
-- later made into a musical -- and "Men and a
City."
Following his overthrow, however, Iraqi writers and
intellectuals said Saddam did not write the books
himself but got a committee to do it for him.
His latest book tells the story of Salem, a noble
Arab tribesman who represents righteousness and Arab
nationalism, and defeats his American and Jewish
enemies. Illegal copies of the book have circulated
in Amman.
The tale describes how Salem unites divided Arab
tribes in Iraq to defeat Hisquel, a foreign intruder
who represents evil.
A publisher for a London-based publishing house who
was offered the rights to print an English
translation by the Jordanian publisher said they
turned it down.
"We read it but thought it had very little literary
value," Hesperus Press publisher Alessandro Gallenzi
told Reuters from London.
"We publish classics. I'm afraid this one does not
make it."
Reuters
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