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Posted on 04/13/2003 12:29:02 AM PDT by FairOpinion
Iraqi families are beginning to feel safe enough to tell of the regime's brutality reports Martin Bentham
The smiling face of the university graduate beams out from the painting hanging proudly in the living room of his parents' home in the centre of Basra.
As Nooriya Fadhil looks up at the picture of her son Mustafa, however, her voice fills with sadness as she speaks about the day, 11 years ago, when he was taken away by Saddam Hussein's security service, never to return.
"I will never forget that day," she says. "Tears have never left my eyes since. Three men came saying they were his friends and wanted to congratulate him on his success at university, but then they took him away to the security department.
"I had to be pulled away - I was angry for my son and I refused to let him go - but what could I do? This was the situation of all Iraqis. I know so many mothers who have suffered as much as I have or more. Two thirds of all young Iraqi people are underground - killed by the regime."
Nooriya, a 62-year-old Shia, cannot go on. As she descends into anguished sobbing and wailing, her eldest son, Mohammed, himself imprisoned and tortured by Saddam's regime, continues.
"Mustafa was taken twice by Saddam's people - the first in 1991 after the Shia revolution in Basra that followed the first Gulf war, and the second time in 1992 after his graduation," says Mohammed, a 40-year-old former army officer turned lawyer. "The first time he was imprisoned for 100 days and tortured in the usual way - beatings, kickings and electrical shocks."
Mustafa, six years younger than Mohammed, was freed after three months, but then seized again the following year, without explanation, the night after his graduation.
"I will always remember that day, June 23, 1992," Mohammed recalls. "He had graduated the day before from his economics course. He was top of the university and had won many prizes so we all gathered here for a party to celebrate. We were all very happy. That was my last memory of him because the next day the men came and took him and we have never seen him since.
"We are sure he is dead because there was an amnesty in October last year and the government said that all the prisons were empty," Mohammed explains. "He has never come back. He was killed just like many thousands of people in Iraq.
"We still miss him very much. If his body was delivered to us it would be better because we could bury him and visit him during religious festivals. Instead he has been killed and thrown away for the dogs to eat."
The story of the Fadhil family, as harrowing as it is, is an everyday story of Iraqi people. Knock on any door along Basra's dusty, narrow streets and you will find similar tales, of sons and husbands missing, of murder and torture by a state desperate to stamp out any dissent, real or imagined.
Now, at last, families like the Fadhils have some hope for the future. While looting, burglary and the sound of gunfire still continues in the city - along with continuing problems of a lack of water and only limited power supplies - most Iraqis here are optimistic.
Nooriya, who has regained her composure, explains: "When Basra was captured last week it was the day we have been waiting for for many long years - to get rid of Saddam. It was a dream. Now we hope to have a good life in the future."
Similar sentiments were expressed by her daughter Zainab, a 21-year-old student. "We hope that no Iraqi families will have to suffer like us in the future. We want to help the British forces that have come to rescue us.
"Whatever happens now will be much better than what we had before, because nothing could be worse than the past."
We saved these people from hell. Can you imagine living under a terror regime like that for years and years?
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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We need to remind liberals that one of their core beliefs is that looting by the underprivileged is always justified.
They should just ask Maxine Waters. She knows those poor people just need Pampers.
Nor the Muslims. They're pretty upset about Saddam being toppled.
No blood for oil! No blood for oil! No blood for oil! Stop making war on the Iraqi people!
Sounds kinda hollow, doesn't it?
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