Friday, January 28, 2005

Iraqi Expatriates Election

Although there is no mention of the polling station in this BBC piece, I am sure that Jack Straw said that Cardiff was one of the towns in the UK where Iraqis would be able to vote. I imagine that this must mean that there are a lot of expatriates in South Wales.

When I attended the University of Wales a quarter of a century ago, I remember that there were two Iraqi student organisations; the NUIS and the ISS. One of these - and to my shame I forget which - seemd to be a Baathist front organisation, and one represented the opposition. There was no end of trouble between them.

I remember a raid - in the snow - by armed Police at Swansea's Hendrefoilan student village, and an attempted murder in Cardiff in which the head of one of the student organisations attacked the leader of the other.

I can't find anything about this at all on the Internet, which is a timely reminder that all human knowledge is not obtainable via Google. It would be good to understand a little more of this history. It all rather passed me by when I was a student, as so much did.

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