Nation waits for the deluge

"I AM so sad," said Saadi, tears streaming down his face as he lifted crates into a truck in central Amman. "He was such a good man." Five miles away Jordanian soldiers, hooded against the driving rain, were turning visitors away from the gates of a hospital where King Hussein lay dying.

Jordanians learnt the latest news about their king's condition by listening to foreign radio stations. Jordanian radio said only that he had returned to hospital but played funereal music, which left little doubt about what was happening.

"There is a mood of sadness and uncertainty about the future," said Saida Kilani, a journalist. "People stopped going to parties a week ago, when the King returned to hospital in the US. There was even a small run on the banks. This morning everybody went to pray. You can see some people crying in the streets."

The sense of the end of an era for Jordan is all the greater because of the King's replacement of his brother, Crown Prince Hassan, with Abdullah, his eldest son, during his brief return to Jordan two weeks ago. "Nobody knows what the new man is like," said a businessman. "Hassan was not very popular but he was crown prince for 34 years and people knew what to expect from him."

Most Jordanians are of Palestinian origin. In the rain-soaked vegetable market of al-Hussein refugee camp, just below the King's Raghada palace, feelings were ambivalent. Mohammed Atwa, born in Amman but whose family came from Jaffa, in what is now Israel, was holding a radio up to his ear to hear the latest news. "Nothing new," he said, putting it down. "But people here liked him. Some of the shops in the market have closed because he is close to the end."

Other Palestinians in the camp felt this was not a good moment to express feelings. "No, no, no," said a trader as he sorted onions in a tray. "Please don't talk to me." Another Palestinian standing near by whispered: "You know why he said that. He doesn't want trouble with the police. They are very active at the moment."

By the Roman amphitheatre in Amman, a favourite meeting place for the thousands of Iraqi refugees in Jordan, people huddled under awnings to avoid the storm.

Although most Jordanians knew the King was very ill, they were only beginning to realise yesterday that his death might be a matter of hours. "The government should have prepared the people better," said an Iraqi businessman long resident in Jordan. "Of course the insiders knew all along what was happening, but not the rest. Nothing will happen now, but there will be trouble later. Rivalries within the royal family are not over."

He was one of the few in Amman willing to speculate about the future. "Jordan will inevitably be weaker without the King. His heir is untried. Probably it lessens the chances of the US doing anything against Iraq because of the uncertain situation here. [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu may want to come to the funeral, which gives the Jordanians a problem."

The imminence of the king's death has silenced talk for the moment about why he sacked Hassan. Mr Kilani said: "People don't really discuss the issue ... They accept Abdullah." The former crown prince, who disappeared from view for a week after his dismissal, has re-emerged. Privately, however, some Jordanians speculate on how long royal unity will last after the King's funeral.

Overall, Jordanians do feel King Hussein protected them from the country's neighbours, all of them more powerful.

He balanced between Israel, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia, in the pay of many but bought by nobody.

Jordanians know these external pressures are increasing and wonder how Abdullah, an army general long considered uninterested in politics, will cope with them.