- Title: IRAQ: In Tikrit, Saddam's memory lives on in memorabilia
- Date: 19th March 2008
- Summary: SECURITY MEMBER AND POLICE TRAFFIC CONTROLLING TRAFFIC IN STREET SLIGHTLY TARNISHED MURAL OF SADDAM HUSSEIN WRITTEN ON IT IN ARABIC "LONG LIVE SADDAM" PEOPLE WALKING IN MARKET IN TIKRIT SHOP SELLING WATCHES FEATURING THE FORMER IRAQI LEADER ON ITS DIAL
- Embargoed: 3rd April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: War / Fighting,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA6B61KMTY747JHAVSC2N6NMHOS
- Story Text: Five years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, his memory lives on through memorabilia, as people in his home town and birth village seek reminders of a time of safety, jobs and cheap living.
Tikrit, the home town of Saddam and capital of Salahuddin province, is a bustling city of 900,000 people, and shows little outward sign of still being in mourning for its most famous son. Traffic clogs its streets, people crowd its shops.
A sign above an entrance to the city welcomes visitors.
Tikrit is probably the last city in Iraq in which buildings are still named after Saddam. In the centre of the city "Grand Saddam Mosque"
is still standing with a picture of the former Iraqi leader on top of its entrance. A slightly tarnished mural of Saddam is also there in the street with inscriptions hailing him as a hero.
The town did well under Saddam. Many of its inhabitants served in the army or were senior government employees. Now five years after Saddam's well, a large number of the people of the town are jobless.
"Situation before was a hundred percent better than now. Speaking about myself, before I was a member of the former Iraqi army, I used to have a job and a salary, which was enough to provide a living for me and my family.
We, members of the former army have not received our salary for three months now, therefore was forced to work as a daily labourer. What can we do,"
said Abu Khalil who was waiting with a group of daily labourers for work.
Nostalgia for Saddam's rule and a longing for a time when many Sunnis revelled in preferential treatment has driven a flourishing trade in Saddam memorabilia like watches and other reminders of the Iraqi leaders.
Watches featuring the former Iraqi leader on the dial sell like hot cakes to a mostly older crowd, while younger shoppers just like to try them on and pose, watch seller Hamad Younis said.
According to Younis people love these watches, which which start at $100 and feature a smiling Saddam in military or Arab dress. He said that the watches never stay in stock more than two or three days because people of Tikrit love Saddam.
Saddam drew many of his most trusted officials from the Sunni strongholds of Tikrit and the neighbouring village of Awja, where he was born in 1937, relying on tribal loyalty to ensure his absolute grip on power.
Loyalty was rewarded with the finest imported goods and lavish state support.
"The situation before the invasion was stable and life was going on a normal way. Every things seem to move according to system and order, but every things have changed after the invasion and Iraqis' lives have changed too to the worse. Each year we say that the situation will improve, but when the year came, we said that the previous year was better," said Abu Jdee' al-Dulaimi, a citizen of the town.
Saddam was hanged in December 2006 for crimes against humanity.
Tikrit has plans to convert the grounds of Saddam Hussein's old palace, now in state of disrepair and covered in graffiti left by Iraqi and U.S.
soldiers, to the public.The main palace sustained a direct hit from a U.S.
missile and the whole complex has been looted But in Awja, where Saddam was born and laid to rest, the village's sad and neglected appearance mirrors the feelings of its people. Crude graffiti covers its walls, the roads are empty and dead trees are all that remain of its once-proud gardens.
Not everyone in Tikrit was close to Saddam, but almost everyone in Awja was related to him in some way. This meant many were targeted by laws meant to punish Saddam's cronies.
Otherwise, like other Iraqis with money, many in Awja fled the violence that engulfed Iraq since Saddam's fall. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Five years after Saddam fell to the U.S.-led invasion in April 2003, the people of Awja lament their loss of status and compare the relative stability of Saddam's rule to the sectarian violence which has raged since his downfall.
"Security situation has deteriorated and also the living conditions in some of the areas. In some of the areas, specially in the Sunni triangle there is no jobs and unemployment is rampant and there is no security, no electricity and no water. At least there was security before the fall of Baghdad or before the invasion," said Ali al-Nida, chief of Saddam's tribe of Albu Naser.
According to Al bu Naser, the United States has frozen assets including possessions of 3600 families of the tribe, hence preventing them from using the money to live.
Bombings and shootings remain a part of daily life despite an overall drop in violence since Sunni Arab tribes turned on Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and 30,000 extra U.S. troops were fully deployed last June.
Shi'ites, Iraq's majority Muslim sect, and Kurds suffered terribly under Saddam, whose Sunni Arab-dominated government crushed dissent through brutal military campaigns, torture and executions.
In Awja, Saddam's legend lives on, though only as a pale shadow of what it was. The old reception centre where he lies, renamed "Martyrs' Hall" by the family members who manage it, has none of the grandeur of the palaces he built during his 24-year rule.
Saddam's marble tomb is covered in a riot of flowers and surrounded by pictures of the former leader.The graves of Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, who died fighting U.S. troops, are nearby.
"Over the past five years we could not venture out because of the killings and looting. Our assets were frozen and our sons were chased. Baucca camp is full of people from this area, our sons and police prison too. They are still in detention at police centres. Moreover, regarding students, one of my sons is a six grade secondary school student and his certificate has been withheld for the third year along with other students because their school is Awja School," said Abu Barzan who cares for the tomb of Saddam. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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