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Saddam buried next to sons in town of his
birth
31.12.2006
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OUJA, Tikrit, Iraq, December 31,-- Saddam
Hussein was buried in the dead of night in his home
village in northern Iraq, after his body was washed
and covered in a white shroud in observance of
Muslim rite by a small group of fellow tribesmen.
New images on the Internet showed the former
president being hanged in Baghdad less than 24 hours
earlier, showing his hooded executioners exchanging
taunts with him and his body dropping through the
trap. He was also shown hanging, his eyes open.
A source among the leading local Sunni Muslim
clerics who took part in the funeral proceedings on
Sunday said a crowded service was first held in
Tikrit, Saddam's former power base, at the Saddam
Mosque, built by the former leader in the 1980s.
The body, which arrived in a U.S. military
helicopter, was then taken to nearby Ouja and laid
to rest in a mosque hall in the presence of a small
group of local officials and tribesmen who played a
major role in Saddam's rise to power.
Hundreds of angry mourners from Saddam's Sunni Arab
minority who traveled to Ouja from different parts
of Iraq laid flowers and pictures of Saddam by the
brick-and-mud tomb.
"The Persians killed him. I can't believe it. By
God, we will take revenge," said a man from the
northern city of Mosul, using a term employed by
some Sunnis to describe Shi'ites who share their
faith with non-Arab Persian-speaking Iran.
"All we can do now is take it out against the
Americans and the government," another mourner said.
The Shi'ite-led government, struggling to rein in
communal violence between once-dominant Sunnis and
majority Shi'ites that is pushing Iraq to the brink
of civil war, had first indicated Saddam's body
might lie in a secret, unmarked grave for fear the
site could become a shrine and focal point for
Baathist rebels.
Salahaddin Governor Mohammed al-Qaisi told Reuters
he attended the funeral, which began at 3:05 a.m.
(00:05 GMT) and lasted about 25 minutes. Also
present was Ali al-Nida, head of Saddam's Albu Nasir
tribe. |
Men pray over the coffin of Iraq's former president
Saddam Hussein during a funeral in Ouja, near Tikrit
in northern Iraq, 175 km (110 miles) north of
Baghdad, December 31, 2006 Photo: Reuters
A video grab from Iraqi private network Biladi TV
shows the dead body of former Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein |
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A source close to Saddam's family confirmed his
remains were interred at Ouja, where his sons Uday
and Qusay, killed by U.S. troops in 2003, lie in a
family plot in the cemetery.
U.S. and Iraqi troops kept a close guard over the
events, the source among the Sunni Muslim clerics
told Reuters.
Arab television stations broadcast new video images
of Saddam's hanging, apparently shot on a
low-quality camera or cellphone by guards or other
officials at the execution, from a different angle
from footage shown on Iraqi state television.
One video on the Internet, lasting about 2-1/2
minutes, shows Saddam drop through the trap while
still intoning the Muslim profession of faith. He
was abruptly cut off in the second verse: "I bear
witness that Mohammad..."
"GO TO HELL"
The new video also bore out witness comments that
the 69-year-old former leader, who looked calm and
composed as he stood on the gallows, had shouted
angry political slogans while masked guards were
bringing him into the execution chamber once used by
his own feared intelligence services.
At one point a voice is heard shouting "Moqtada,
Moqtada, Moqtada," a reference to Shi'ite cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr, whose father was murdered in 1999,
probably by Saddam's agents. The words "go to hell"
are also audible on the video.
The New York Times quoted a witness as saying one of
the guards shouted just before the hanging: "You
have destroyed us.
You have killed us. You have made us live in
destitution."
Saddam answered: "I have saved you from destitution
and misery and destroyed your enemies, the Persians
and Americans."
The guard cursed him, saying "God damn you,"
according to The New York Times. Saddam replied "God
damn you."
The new footage, not shown in officially released
images, may fuel charges by Saddam's supporters
among the once dominant Sunni Arabs that the whole
process has been "victors' justice."
Ouja is a small settlement of unusually grand homes,
signs of the prosperity it enjoyed during the rule
of its most famous son, born there in poverty in
1937.
During three decades of harsh rule, clan members
from around Tikrit, and other Sunni Muslim Arabs,
played a key role at the expense of Kurds and of the
Shi'ite majority, in power since the U.S. invasion
that overthrew Saddam.
Saddam's death three decades after seizing power
closes a chapter in Iraq's history marked by war
with Iran and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait that
turned him from ally to enemy of Washington and
reduced his oil-rich nation to poverty.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, his fragile authority
among fellow Shi'ites enhanced after he forced
through Saddam's execution over hesitation among
Sunni and Kurdish members of his government, has
urged Sunni armed groups to end their fight.
But, as President Bush said in a statement, violence
continues. Car bombs by suspected Sunni rebels
killed more than 70 in Baghdad and in a Shi'ite holy
city on Saturday.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin
said in a statement that Washington and its allies
were entirely to blame for the violence and
predicted that Saddam's "hurried and brutal
execution ... will further deepen the schism in
Iraqi society."
Reuters
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