A protester wearing a Saddam Hussein mask holds a sign during a demonstration outside a U.S. Embassy on September 11, 2002

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL South East Asia correspondent

SINGAPORE, September 12 (IslamOnline) - Singapore police Wednesday, September 11, detained a man wearing a facemask resembling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as he tried to gatecrash a September 11 memorial service at the US embassy in Napier Road.

The 47-year-old Singaporean, a part-time taxi driver whose name has been withheld, was asked to leave when he showed up at the embassy wearing army fatigues and the Saddam mask, but ‘he refused and insisted on wanting to attend the service dressed in his outfit’, a police statement said, Bernama News Agency reported.

Police spokesman, ASP Stanley Norbert said that the Singaporean national was detained at about 9:00 am along Napier Road as he was walking from a bus stop towards the direction of the embassy where the memorial service was in progress.

Police officers arrested the man for being a public nuisance under the Penal Code, and investigations, said Norbert, were proceeding.

There were no other reports of disturbances during the morning’s memorial service, he said.

In other cities in South East Asia, the memorial service due to be organized by the U.S. Embassy were simply cancelled amid threats of imminent Al-Qaeda attacks.

The U.S. has also closed Embassies in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines saying the threat of Al-Qaeda attack were real and could not be dismissed.

Security was tight around many U.S. installations in the region, with a bank of metal detectors set up outside the U.S. embassy in Singapore.

On the other hand, Malaysia said it is not supporting military actions by the United States against Iraq. Legislators in Kuala Lumpur said  the issue should be resolved through the United Nations, The Star said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Leo Michael Toyad said that at the same time, Malaysia calls on Iraq to abide by all U.N. resolutions.

“Malaysia is of the view that the Iraq issue should be resolved in line with international laws,” he said in reply to questions by Parliamentarians during “question time” session on Tuesday.

Toyad said that Malaysia had been monitoring developments pertaining to US plans to attack Iraq.

He said that U.S. military action against Iraq was not due to the petroleum factor but over claims that Iraq was still in possession of dangerous weapons and capable of producing nuclear weapons.

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