Saddam Hussein hunted

Dancing in the streets, Iraqis described his arrest as ‘the single most important event in their history’

BAGHDAD - Sami Orfali

January 2003

American troops hunted down deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and arrested him in his hometown of Tikrit in mid December.

Saddam, the tyrant who ruled Iraq since the early 1970s, was reportedly defiant and insisted that he was the president of Iraq, and that he wanted to negotiate with the Americans.

The Americans found a handgun, two AK-47 and $750,000 in cash with the deposed dictator. They also found letters from resistance leaders briefing him on their offenses against American troops, the Iraqi police and Iraqi civilians throughout the country.

The Iraqi people received Saddam’s arrest with joy, firing rounds of their Ak-47s in the air and taking to the streets to express their thrill.

“This is the end of a nightmare. We were brought up in fear under this criminal,” Ahmed Saadi, a student at the Baghdad University told Alternative.

“There are no mixed feelings about the capture of Saddam. He’s been here for the past thirty years abusing the people, squandering the nation’s resources and oppressing everyone in Iraq,” he added. According to Saadi, Saddam’s brutality reached neighboring countries when he waged a war against Iran in 1980 and invaded Kuwait a decade later.

“He squeezed our country in three unjustified wars, styling himself as the foremost defendant of the Arab and Muslim nation,” said Abir Mustafa, a supporter of the Islamic Daawa Party. “But his tricks didn’t fool us, we knew from the very first day that he was a liar, a coward and would be the first one to surrender without a fight to anyone in order to spare his life.”

Shahed Abdul-Rasul, a supporter of the Communist Party who went out to the street to celebrate Saddam’s arrest said that while “we were hungry under sanctions, he and sons and their entourage were living in an extravagant luxury.”

According to Abdul-Rasul, the toppling of the Saddam regime and his subsequent arrest were the most delightful events in the history of the Iraqi people.

“At last we’re done with this fake hero who only managed to kill his people.”

She added that the images of Saddam’s arrest like a filthy rat must send messages to all leaders worldwide who are still opressing their peoples: “No matter how tyrant you are, there will come an end to your injustice.”