Flags Stolen From Sons
Graves In Saddam's
Village
By
Alexandre Peyrille
8-3-3
- AWJA, Iraq (AFP) - Tempers flared as the two Iraqi
flags covering the earthen graves of Saddam Hussein's slain sons were
stolen in the night under the noses of US soldiers guarding the cemetery
in the fallen dictator's birthplace.
-
- "Nobody here would have done such thing. It is the
Americans who have done that," said Walid Jassem, the local grocer in a
village where most people claim allegiance to Saddam's family and were
showered with luxury during his 24 years in power.
-
- The idea of US soldiers here in this bastion of the
old regime burned the hearts of some. The fact they guarded the graves
of Saddam's male heirs was positively blasphemous.
-
- "I have not gone there and will not go there as long
as the soldiers are there," Jassem fumed.
-
- The hard brown dirt where the bodies lay was now
marked by bricks, as the Americans controlled traffic to the cemetery
where the bodies had been laid to rest in a low-key ceremony Saturday
that US troops barred onlookers from joining.
-
- US soldiers searched cars Sunday as they left the
grounds and said they had seen no one remove the Iraqi flags.
-
- Not reconciled to the Saddam Hussein family and, by
extension, the Tikrit region's fall from prominence, Jassem said: "The
day of revenge is near. We are going to battle against the Americans,
but not with rocks like the Palestinians."
-
- The boast, one of many, was an indication that in the
Tikrit region resistance was still alive and well, carried out by
fighters like the Fedayeen militia founded by the late Uday.
-
- Local Rafah Berbuti also lauded the brothers. "They
lived like kings and died as heroes," he said. "We regret that we were
not alongside them when they fought the Americans. We will avenge
them."
-
- The corpses of Uday and Qusay, and the latter's
14-year-old son Mustafa, were transported by US helicopter to Tikrit,
175 kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad, by helicopter Saturday
morning and then transferred to Awja.
-
- The burial looked to close the final chapter in the
saga that saw many Iraqis react with a mixture of skepticism, suspicion,
and, of course, relief to the news of the men's deaths.
-
- The leading cleric in neighboring Tikrit cancelled a
memorial service for Uday and Qusay under pressure from the chief of
Saddam's tribe.
-
- The decision came after Sheikh Yehya Ibrahim al-Attawi
met one of the leaders of Saddam's tribe on Sunday.
-
- "Mahmud al-Nada told me this morning that US forces do
not want any gathering. There will be no memorial service" for Uday and
Qusay, Attawi said.
-
- A memorial service for Monday had been advertised all
over Tikrit, but Saddam's family backed down, in what may have been a
condition imposed by the Americans for Uday, Qusay and Mustafa, to be
buried Saturday in Awja.
-
- Attawi hammered the Americans for tightly controlling
the mourning of Uday and Qusay that the coalition fears could become a
rallying point for Saddam supporters.
-
- "They have promised to bring us democracy but this is
no democracy. They are afraid of any gathering. They suspect everyone.
They behave very badly. This is our country," the cleric said.
-
- Iraqis, deeply suspicious of US motives, only accepted
the deaths when the coalition allowed journalists to film and photograph
the corpses three days after they went down guns blazing against US
soldiers in the northern city of Mosul on July
22.
|
The
Mulindwas Communication Group
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Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
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