Pressures

As Premier Karim Kassem addressed the first congress of the General Federation of Iraqi Trade Unions in Baghdad last week, Communists in the audience shouted: "Hang the traitors!" The Premier's gaunt face tensed and his voice crackled. "I will not hang traitors just because you or some other group demands it," he exploded. "It is not your right. We follow law and justice in dealing with traitors."

Then Kassem crumpled into a chair, shakily sipped some water. Interpreters broke the startled silence by translating the Premier's words for the benefit of visiting Communist delegations. Soon Kassem rose again, staring straight ahead, and finished his speech. His edgy performance recalled his remark during a speech to the Popular Resistance militia a few days earlier--that he was addressing them against his doctor's advice.

The hard-working Premier, who in a year in power has slept only three or four hours a night on a couch in his office, has certainly been subjected to severe pressures. Most came from the Communists, who helped him to power. But now the pressures come from the army, demanding forceful restoration of order after nearly a year of revolutionary anarchy in Iraq. Last week several small but violent scuffles occurred in Baghdad. One night, after a gang of Communists dragged a man to death in the classic manner of Iraqi retribution, soldiers chased nine Communists onto the roof of Baghdad's Al-Tahrir College. When they refused to come down, the troops killed all nine. Reportedly back of the new army policing vigor was Baghdad's military governor, Brigadier Saleh al-Abdi, who now works, sleeps and issues orders from a Defense Ministry office adjoining that of haggard, harried Premier Kassem.

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