Saddam's hometown torn between loyalty
( 2003-05-12 16:38 ) (7 )

Haji Shafiq and Sami Hemeid are treading a fine line. They belonged to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party - but, they insist, that was just a formality. They earned their living working for Saddam - but they acknowledge the failures of his rule. Then again, they argue, everyone makes mistakes.

They aren't the only ones feeling ambivalent here in Tikrit, the ousted Iraqi leader's hometown and the region that benefited most from his 23 years in power.

With their leader gone and their country moving on, Tikritis are facing a dilemma as their pampered past collides with a suddenly uncertain future.

Many complain about the political vacuum left in Saddam's wake and the lawlessness sweeping parts of Iraq. They don't renounce him as the brutal dictator that many Iraqis think he was. Though some criticize his policies, even those words are chosen carefully and used obliquely.

If they join other Iraqis in celebrating Saddam's removal, it would be seen as an act of political expedience - as well as naked ingratitude. But to defend Saddam would raise the wrath of the country's new master, the United States, as well as Iraqi opposition leaders returning from exile and angling for power.

"We are sad that he's gone," lamented Shafiq, a physiotherapist who retired in the 1990s to become a construction contractor for Saddam's presidential office in Tikrit. "We were treated with respect everywhere we went. It was enough to say that we come from Tikrit."

Tikrit's fortunes have been linked to Saddam's rise to political prominence in the late 1960s. Over 30 years, it has evolved from a dusty agricultural backwater known for its tasty watermelons to a relatively prosperous city of mostly government employees

Saddam relied on fellow Tikritis and members of his own clan throughout his rule, picking aides, members of his personal security and commanders of his elite Republican Guard from among them.

Ordinary Tikritis also enjoyed his patronage, winning government jobs and contracts by virtue of their birthplace. Every year, the city was the scene of lavish street celebrations marking Saddam's birthday - April 28, 1937 - broadcast live on Iraqi TV and radio.

Now, US Army khaki is everywhere you turn.

"We are not just sad because he's no longer with us, but because our country has totally collapsed," said Hemeid, a British-educated civil engineer who worked for the presidential engineering office in Tikrit.

Few Tikritis hide their pride that Saddam was one of their own. This, coupled with years of strong anti-American propaganda generated by Saddam's regime have left many uncomfortable with the sight of US troops patrolling the city.

Tikrit's power and water supplies were disrupted during the war but have been fully restored - something Baghdad's 5 million inhabitants are still dreaming of. Yet Tikritis are happy to blame the Americans for fuel shortages and even noise pollution from armored vehicles moving around at night.

Ali Mohammed al-Shweishi, like many Tikritis, was somewhat apologetic for Saddam's policies.

He sought to dilute the city's association with Saddam, listing other famous Iraqis who hailed from Tikrit: Salah el-Din, the 12th-century Muslim general who fought the Crusaders - known in the West as Saladin - and former Iraqi president Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.

"Our history dates back to 4000 B.C.," said Shweishi, a 60-year-old truck driver and father of 12.

"As for Saddam, we are just like the rest of the Arabs: An era has ended, a new one has begun and it's ahlan wa sahlan again," he said, using the Arabic for "welcome."

Others in the city have shown a higher level of loyalty to Saddam's legacy.

"Saddam lives in the hearts and not on walls," reads graffiti below a defaced mural of the Iraqi leader on the city's outskirts. "Bush, you dog: Saddam lives on," reads another inside a Tikrit presidential palace looted after US forces captured the city.

Graffiti glorifying Saddam remain intact on a wall separating the reviewing stand built specially for his birthday celebrations in Tikrit and the street in front.

"Saddam is the nation's poem and its creative voice," reads one.

Not everyone is waxing lyrical about Saddam these days, though.

"Whoever sees these palaces loves to hate Saddam," wrote a visitor on one wall inside a looted palace on a Tigris river island.

Abu Sheim'a, a Special Republican Guard officer who had frequently been assigned security duties outside the palace, recalled bitterly how he and his colleagues were barred from the main compound.

"We were just like guard dogs," Abu Sheim'a said. "Inside, it was only his relatives guarding him."

(AP)