A Guest of Saddam Hussein
Steve Dennie
October 1994
It was 4 a.m. in the Kuwait City airport, August 2, 1990. The first sign that something was wrong was the jet fighters flying close overhead.
The second sign when the jets dropped bombs.
"That's when people realized something was going on," recalls Joshua Prabhakar.
And he and his family began two months as reluctant guests of Saddam Hussein.
* * * * *
Joshua Prabhakar is a sophomore at Huntington College majoring in Biology. He plans to go on to medical school. Joshua was born in India in 1974, the same year his parents, Dr. Richard and Miriam Prabhakar, went there to do medical work.
They had been in the States and were returning to India when Saddam Hussein of Iraq decided to invade and annex the little country of Kuwait. He figured it would be easy.
The Prabhakars' British Airways flight had been delayed for an hour in London because of mechanical problems. If not for that, they would have concluded their half-hour stop in Kuwait and been in the air when the Iraqis invaded. But sometimes, things do go according to schedule.
The Prabhakars had left the plane and were browsing through some airport shops when the bombs dropped.
"All of the glass shook, and the merchants closed their shops," Joshua recalls.
(Incidentally, the brother of the Emir of Kuwait arrived on the same flight, and went on to the palace--where he was killed during a gun battle with Iraqi soldiers.)
First, they were told the flight would be delayed two hours. Then four hours. Finally, around 10 a.m., they were taken to the airport hotel and given two rooms. Alan, a school friend whom Joshua had known since fourth grade, was traveling by himself. He became part of their family (which also included Joshua's two younger brothers). Some passengers were taken to another hotel.
A couple days later, the Iraqis separated all the westerners--British, French, German, American etc.--from the other passengers.
"My brothers and I had just become American citizens before leaving the States, so we and my mom were taken to the dining room area, which was separated by a big glass wall from the lobby. My Dad, an Indian citizen, could see us through the glass."
An Iraqi general said they would be taken to their embassies.
"What if we have family outside?" Miriam asked.
"If you have family outside, you can leave," he said. So they joined Richard.
But Alan had to stay--and soon found himself not in his embassy, but in Baghdad, along with the rest of the passengers, as part of Hussein's "human shield." Remember the propaganda scene where Hussein visited the foreigners and held a little boy on his lap? Alan was standing behind the boy. Afterwards, one woman petitioned Hussein to let Alan go free, since he was alone. Hussein consented, and Alan soon found himself on a plane to Jordan, and then to England.
"We met up back in school in India," Joshua says.
Meanwhile, the Prabhakars were stuck in the airport hotel for a month, and then moved to another hotel. Several other hotels, in fact. "Whenever CNN mentioned the hotel where we were staying, the Iraqis moved us."
All they had was their carry-on bags. For a while, they washed their clothes at night, let them dry while they slept. Then people from the Regent Palace hotel sent them clothes. Richard received a sweatshirt. Later, they encountered a rich Greek who said, "That's a nice sweatshirt."
"Thanks," Richard said. "It was given to us."
The man replied, "I know. It was mine."
"One night around 2:00 in the morning, they asked us to come down to the lobby. We figured they would do the same thing they had done in the other hotel--separate some and take them to Baghdad. We went down with our luggage. The whole place was surrounded by soldiers.
"As we were standing there, one man told us, 'You should leave.' He picked up our bags and took them into the elevator, and said, 'Follow me.' He took us back to our room. They took everyone else away on buses.
About 45 minutes later, two men--one in uniform--entered their room. "You have a phone call from the American embassy," the soldier said.
He was trying to flush out American citizens. Fortunately, Richard saw through it.
"I don't need the American embassy," he told them. "I need the Indian embassy. If you hear anything from them, I'll come down."
The soldier said, "Who is Miriam Prabhakar?"
My dad said, "That is my wife." She had her sari on, so she didn't look American.
"If there are any Americans in here, it will be big trouble," the Iraqi said. Then he walked out.
Tickets were available--if you had cash, and plenty of it. Hussein had reversed the exchanged rate. Instead of getting five Rials for every dollar, you had to pay five dollars for every rial. So tickets were expensive. Fortunately, on this trip, the Prabhakars were carrying plenty of cash. They bought tickets.
But Miriam also needed an Indian passport. The three boys, despite having become US citizens, still had their Indian passport.
That was provided through India's Foreign Minister, who visited Kuwait because of the many Indians living there. He came to their hotel, and Miriam was able to explain her problem.
"I have an American passport, and I need an Indian passport to get out of here," Miriam was able to tell him.
"Never mention that you have an American passport," the Foreign Minister cautioned. "Do you have a passport-size picture?"
She did. He called the Indian embassy, and that same day, she was issued a temporary passport.
The Minister was taking women and children back to India with him. "You can come with me right now," he offered.
But they refused. They didn't want to leave Richard behind.
With Miriam's new passport in hand, they went to the Kuwait airport and flew to Baghdad.
"We stayed in the Baghdad Sheraton hotel for a while. It was much freer there. We could go outside and walk around whenever we wanted.
"Dan Rather was staying in the Sheraton. We saw him at breakfast. I wanted to go get his autograph, but my mom wouldn't let me, because only an American would recognize him."
As they boarded the plane for Jordan, a new problem arose. The man at the boarding gate said Miriam's documents were valid, because they weren't stamped by the Iraqi embassy. Richard argued and pled, by the man held firm: she couldn't leave.
A man from an African embassy--they never did learn who the man was--stood nearby. Richard looked at him and said, "You've got to help us." The man said nothing. He just looked at them.
They went to the office of the airport manager, who also refused to let Miriam leave. But then this African appeared at the door. He said something to the manager--and his tune changed. They could go.
Before long, they were in Amman, Jordan. And later that day, they flew on to India.
* * * * *
"We flew into Madras, India, and then took an overnight train to Narsapur. When we arrived, the whole platform was covered with people. At first, we thought it was just people there meeting other passengers. But then everyone came to our caboose.
"All of the hospital staff were there, all my friends. They had been holding huge prayer meetings for us. As we drove through town, everyone was on the street. It was amazing."
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