Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991                   TAG: 9103020222
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LONDON                                LENGTH: Medium

ANTI-SADDAM COALITION SEEKS TO FORM GOVERNMENT IN EXILE

Mowaffak Rubaie, a London-based member of the Islamic Dawa party, one of the oldest and largest Iraqi exile groups that is opposed to President Saddam Hussein, said efforts were under way "to convince the Americans to turn the administration" of the area over to the two-month-old Joint Action Committee.

Formed on Dec. 27 in Damascus, the committee of 17 Iraqi exile groups says it represents the majority of Iraqis who oppose Saddam. Its member organizations include Communists, various Muslim groups, Kurds and anti-Saddam members of the Baath Party, which is Saddam's party.

Rubaie declined to say how his group had approached the Americans and whether the contacts were direct or indirect. He said the Americans had not yet responded to the request.

Separately, the British Foreign Office said Friday that one of its officials met three times with members of the Joint Action Committee in January and February.

A Foreign Office spokesman said David Gore-Booth, assistant undersecretary for Middle Eastern affairs, had met with leaders of Iraqi Shiite and Kurdish groups, most recently on Feb. 22.

The spokesman denied that the British were trying to help the committee form an Iraqi government in exile. "They have been explaining their views of what should happen in Iraq" in terms of its becoming a pluralist society that respects human rights, he said.

Iraqi exiles in London said Friday that various Iraqi groups were meeting this week in Washington, Riyadh, Tehran and Damascus.

The meetings are a prelude to a gathering scheduled for March 10 in Beirut at which the groups will attempt to overcome their differences and form a government in exile.

One of the big obstacles to forming such a government, they said, is a split between Saudi- and Egyptian-backed exiles, who are strongly pro-American and who were reportedly meeting Friday in Riyadh, and those who are suspicious of the West and angry about the destruction that the allies inflicted on Iraq.

They also said the Syrians were trying to ensure that pro-Syrian Iraqi Baathists and Communists were included in any Government in exile.

While Rubaie said that most groups in the Joint Action Committee were not strongly pro- or anti-West, he said that many, including him, were angry at the United States for supporting Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war and for then waging the destructive war against Iraq.

"They built up this monster and then, when they felt morally bound to destroy this monster, they destroyed the Iraqi people, leaving Saddam in power in a ruined Iraq with the Iraqis utterly humiliated," he said.