These are the words I heard from the people whom I talked to when the trial of Iraq’s former dictator was broadcasted on all of the Arab news channels live.
Before going out reporting, I was watching the TV footage of Saddam in Dujail in 1982. “One thing I want to ask Saddam if I see him face to face,” I said to my bureau chief who was watching the news with me. “‘why?’ is the word, right?” she asked me. And of course, it was the right word to ask.
Before the start of the trial, I went to Adhamiya, a relatively Sunni neighborhood where the people are anti-America and pro-Saddam. Life was normal in the former Baathist ghetto despite the intensive deployment of the Iraqi army soldiers. A group of seven people were gathering at a barber shop in front of the revered shrine of Imam Abu Haneefa Numan [Imam Adham], a descendant of an historic family which bears the neighborhood’s name.
Adhamiya has a long history. This Sunni middle class neighborhood was a ghetto during Saddam Hussein’s reign. Families here have suffered from the regime’s ferocity, as everywhere in Iraq, but the majority of the population was composed of former army officers.
The neighborhood’s residents kept pious vigil at the obsequies of the foreign mujahadijn [holy fighters] who died April 10 and buried them in the mosque’s garden, renamed the “Martyr’s Cemetery”.
If someone goes to Adhamiya, he/she finds Graffiti blossoms on the walls. “Long live the mujahid [holy fighter] President Saddam!” ”Allah is great and Saddam is brave!” “By our blood, by our soul, we shall sacrifice ourselves for you, Saddam!” “The jihad is our way!” “Patience, Baghdad, patience, we shall force the occupier to leave!”
The owner of the barber shop and his customers were watching the TV waiting for the trial. Before it started, Al-Arabiya, a Dubai-based news channel, showed breaking news saying the head of the court is a Kurd.
“As if the Arabs are minority now and the Kurds are the majority in Iraq,” a customer said.
Al-Arabiya was repeating footage of Saddam’s visit to Dujail in 1982 before the assassination attempt. The TV anchor started describing a woman slaughtering a deer and stamped her hands stained in blood on one of Saddam’s cars which she thought he was in.
“Saddam was so smart. He was in another car. He is really smart.” A customer told another.
Another customer said that the charges against Saddam are untrue. “The army was fighting to protect his country and Saddam gave orders to restore control of the Iraqi areas which were about to be taken by force by foreigners from Iran,” said one of them of the 1991 uprising in Iraq. “These were enemies that should be fought. The woman and children who were killed were wives and children of these enemies.” he said. “When the resistance fought in Falluja, didn’t the Americans destroy the whole the city? ” he wondered.
Al-Arabiya also broadcasted live footage of people demonstrating in Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown, carrying banners and posters of their ousted leader. “See. Do you see how the people still want Saddam and chant for him?” said the barber who was also busy cutting the hair of a customer.
When the trial started to be broadcasted, the customers gathered before the television, with faces pale and eyes concentrating.
“This is insulting,” said a customer who put his hand on his forehead when Saddam appeared walking to his cage. “It’s hard to see your president who ruled you for 35 years in this situation,” he added. “Why do they keep him in the cage?” he wondered. “Is he going to fly?”
“huh! They are trying Saddam in the American Capital in Baghdad, the green zone.”
When Saddam rejected to identify himself, the crowd clapped. “I swear he is a hero,” said one of the crowd. “Look at his brave and strong look,” he added.
Leaving Adhamiya, I went to Karrada, a relatively Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad where people showered the American forces entering the capital with flowers. People in this neighborhood suffered a lot by the dictatorship of the former regime.
“Why are they trying him?” wondered Wisam Khalid, 26, shopping for Iftar, said. “He should be beheaded in front of all the people.”
Khalid said his father was taken back to the army after he finished his duty. They took him by force and he died in the battle field in 1986.
“I couldn’t see my father for along time. I was deprived from his fatherhood,” Khalid said in grief. “When I was watching the trial at home, I remembered how I cried on my father when they brought his body from the front [means the battle field]. We were destroyed. My family was destroyed. This whole country was destroyed.”
Also in Karrada, sitting on a canopy in front of his house, Haj Ahmed Jameel, 72, said he watched the trial on TV and he wasn’t satisfied. “We don’t need him to be tried. We need him to be executed without trial,” Jameel said. “Did he make trials for the ones he executed when he was in power? He is a criminal, a killer, a slaughterer. He is a villain.”
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