He Would Rather Have Stayed and Fought : IOC: New president of Kuwaiti Olympic Committee was out of the country during Iraqi invasion when his father died defending palace.

Sheik Ahmad Al-Sabah of Kuwait was aware of the rumors that his country would be attacked by Iraq, but like others in the royal family, he did not take them seriously.

So he was not fleeing Kuwait City when he boarded a plane bound for Geneva on that fateful August morning, a short time before the airport was closed because of the Iraqi invasion. He had a business meeting to attend.

“I left Kuwait at 2 o’clock in the morning on the last flight that was allowed to leave the country,” he said. “It was my bad luck.”

Ahmad speaks English well, but his companion in the lobby of the New Takanawa Hotel thought that the sheik might be confused. No, Ahmad said, he meant to say that his luck was bad.

It was his father, he said, who was fortunate. Sheik Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the brother of Kuwait’s emir and an influential leader in international sports, was killed in the early hours of the invasion while defending the Dasman Palace in Kuwait City.

“If I had been there, I would have died the same death as my father,” Ahmad said.

The oldest of Fahad’s six children, Ahmad, 30, bears a strong resemblance to his father. Solidly built, he has the same round face, short beard and piercing dark eyes. He also speaks with the same fervor of a man who is committed to his beliefs.

“Every man will die,” Ahmad said. “He doesn’t know how or when. Maybe it will come by accident, maybe by heart attack. But my father was able to choose his death, a good death. It is an honor to die in defense of your country, your home.”

As told by Ahmad, it indeed was his father’s choice. Fahad, 45, was at his family’s vacation home outside the city when he learned of the invasion. Instead of escaping into Saudi Arabia, as did the emir and many other members of the royal family, Fahad drove to the palace.

“He heard that there were only 30 soldiers defending the palace,” Ahmad said. “He said he would be the 31st.”

That was characteristic of Fahad, who, even while working for peace through sports, was a veteran of three Middle East wars. Ironically, he served as an adviser to Iraq in 1984 and ’85 during its war with Iran.

One of Ahmad’s cousins, an eyewitness, said the palace already was under siege when Fahad arrived. Unable to get in through the gates, he drove his car to the front of the palace and fired with a pistol through the car window at the attacking Iraqis. He also had a machine gun, although it is unclear whether he used it.

Ahmad said his father was shot in the back of the head by a sniper.

Unaware of his identity, the Iraqis delivered Fahad’s body to a hospital. Later, upon hearing that Fahad was one of their victims, the Iraqis sought confirmation by searching the hospital for his body. A doctor, who later fled to Saudi Arabia, told Ahmad that hospital officials hid the body, which still has not been discovered by the Iraqis.

As a result, Ahmad said, many people in Kuwait believe that Fahad is still alive. When the Kuwaiti resistance, which is fighting against the Iraqi occupation, strikes, Ahmad said it leaves behind as a symbol the mark of Fahad.

“He lived as a hero, and he died as a hero,” Ahmad said. “He is like John Wayne.”

When he learned of the invasion after arriving in Geneva, Ahmad flew immediately to Saudi Arabia, where, he said, he met with his uncle, the emir, and volunteered to return to Kuwait to fight. But he said his uncle told him he must first use his father’s contacts to isolate Iraq in international sports.

Ahmad is in Tokyo to meet with his father’s former colleagues during the annual International Olympic Committee meeting. Fahad was an IOC member since 1981.

Ahmad won half his battle when the IOC executive board extended formal recognition to the Kuwait Olympic Committee, even though it is in exile in Saudi Arabia. Ahmad succeeded his father as president of the Kuwait committee.

But the executive board did not take a position on Ahmad’s campaign to have Iraq banned from the Asian Games, which will begin in Beijing Saturday.

Still, Ahmad said he is optimistic that the 38-nation Olympic Council of Asia, of which his father was the president, will take such action at its meeting Thursday. The OCA’s executive committee already has recommended Iraq’s exclusion from the Games. On the other side of the issue is Saddam Hussein’s son, who is the president of the Iraq Olympic Committee.

Ahmad will be in Beijing as the head of Kuwait’s delegation, which he said will include 52 athletes in four sports. Those athletes were training outside the country during the invasion and have since gathered in Saudi Arabia. About 300 other Kuwaiti athletes who were supposed to compete in the Asian Games will not be allowed to leave the country by Iraq.

After the Asian Games, Ahmad said he intends to return to Kuwait to join the resistance.

“I will go back home, or I will die trying,” said Ahmad, married and the father of two. “I don’t care about myself. My father taught me many things, but the most important was that you should love your country more than anything else, even your family.

“I loved my father, but I am not sad for him. He died fighting for what he believed.”