G'day all,
Ozzie's home! Woohoo!!!!
They couldn't treat someone with posting deprivation so said you go home and the doctor'll come to you!!!
Seriously, I have great pain in the heart and feel very weak but what a shock to see where I'd been cut. Struth, it'll be good to finally wash my hair.. Mrs Ozzie's lovingly been sort of towel washing the red stuff off my head but in a few days I can actually wash my hair. Can't wait.
Now while I was in hospital I heard this news item and it got me wondering about what happened to all of Saddam Hussein's government. Who could forget that Propaganda Minister? What a sideshow! And what happened to Tariq Aziz? I kinda warmed to him, and then there was that Oil Minister blowing up wells so's noone else could have them.
Now we find that one of them slipped into sleepy New Zealand while they weren't looking!
So what happened to all that "pack of cards"? Anyone know?
May 3, 2005 - 2:25PMEx-Iraq minister in NZ, parliament told
A former minister in Saddam Hussein's Iraq government has been living in New Zealand for the past month, the nation's parliament has been told.
One-time Iraq agriculture minister Amer Mahdi Salem Khashaly entered the country on a United Nations passport about a month ago, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said.
Peters said Khashaly was "a former minister for agriculture and agrarian reform in a Saddam Hussein government at the same time that hundreds of thousands of Kurds were losing their lives under a regime of genocide".
"... This person is living in this country and has been now for over a month," Peters told parliament on Tuesday.
The MP said Khashaly was a former delegate to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) and UNESCO who "came here on UN passports only about a month ago".
Prime Minister Helen Clark said her government was unaware of Khashaly's presence in New Zealand but would investigate.
"If such a person arrived on a UN passport he would not necessarily trigger any concern," Clark said.
Khashaly is the second former Saddam government official in a week to seek refuge in New Zealand.
A former diplomat for the regime who had been seeking to live in New Zealand has been told to leave the country.
Immigration Minister Paul Swain said on Monday that the unnamed man's visitor permit had been revoked.
"The man and his wife entered the country last year to visit family and they later applied for residency," Swain said.
The man was "unsuitable" because he had a role in Hussein's oppressive regime, Swain said.
Swain said the case of the diplomat had "highlighted some shortcomings in the department's information systems. I have been assured that these systems will be strengthened".
Swain said the diplomat was not on any international wanted list and was not a security risk.
Peters, known for his anti-immigration views, had alerted media to the diplomat, whom he branded one of Saddam's "henchmen".
An immigration official said the man had been an Iraqi diplomat, including ambassador to Cuba, for 20 years.
The man had declared himself to be a retired ambassador when he applied for a visa in Bangkok last year but this was not notified to Wellington and he was not flagged on the service's computer information system which would have alerted more senior staff to his application.
After the case of the diplomat was highlighted, Clark said her government would clamp down on undesirable immigrants.
"We will act to defend our borders" against immigration cheats," she said earlier on Tuesday.
Clark said New Zealand had to be vigilant for migrants "who are determined to cheat" to get into the country.
© 2005 AAP