ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: MONDAY, March 4, 1991                   TAG: 9103040244
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW DELHI, INDIA                                LENGTH: Short

PAPER REPORTS SADDAM ASKED INDIA FOR ASYLUM

An Indian newspaper reported Sunday that President Saddam Hussein of Iraq wanted to seek asylum in India, but the government rejected two secret overtures.

Saddam's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim, had been in touch with Indian Commerce Minister Subramaniam Swamy about the asylum, the mass-circulation Sunday Observer said, quoting unidentified sources in the Indian government.

Swamy was not immediately available for comment.

Ibrahim, the former head of Iraq's secret police, is Iraq's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva.

Sunday Observer's sources said the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council had been looking since early February for countries that could grant asylum to Saddam and his family.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB