Still at Home with Saddam in Owja Village

Still at Home with Saddam
Ferry Biedermann - IPS 4/18/03

Saddam Hussein's country house at the end of a row of shabby villas in Owja village stands plundered and burnt. It is a ghost house, and Owja is a ghost town. People fled when the Saddam regime fell. They knew that looting and revenge would follow.

TIKRIT, Iraq, Apr 18 (IPS) - Saddam Hussein's country house at the end of a row of shabby villas in Owja village stands plundered and burnt. It is a ghost house, and Owja is a ghost town. People fled when the Saddam regime fell. They knew that looting and revenge would follow.

A dented and rusting red Volkswagen Passat from the eighties, packed with people, and suitcases piled high on the roof comes to a halt at one of the first houses down the road. Abu Gha'eb, a retired army officer, climbs out and pushes open the gate to his house.

"See, we were right to expect trouble," he says, pointing at bullet marks on the metal front door. "People think we are rich, just because we are from the village of the President, but look around you, am I rich?"

The people of Owja and adjacent Tikrit have long been considered Saddam Hussein's most loyal supporters. Pro-regime demonstrations were always just a bit more enthusiastic in Tikrit. Many Tikritis held high government positions, or became influential through their connection with the ruling family. Inevitably, this led to animosity and envy.

Most houses in Owja are like Abu Gha'eb's; old, dusty and modest, although they are still a cut above the average Iraqi village dwelling. There are some opulent exceptions. Saddam Hussein's house stands out of course, for the walled park around it, garages enough for a dozen cars and a large indoor swimming pool, still in good condition.

Abu Gha'eb is from the Naseri tribe of Saddam Hussein, but he only met him once, when a tribal dispute had to be settled.

"As far as I know the President only stayed here once over the last ten years," says Abu Gha'eb. "His sons came a couple of times a year."

Most people in Owja say they profited little from living close to Saddam Hussein's family home. A couple of blocks away, a small group of villagers has gathered outside a shop handing out government food rations. "You see, we are like everybody else in Iraq," says the shop owner, Yihyeh Ismael.

But nobody says a bad word about Saddam Hussein or his rule. "We still respect him and we are willing to die for him," says one of them.

In nearby Tikrit, a few people have gathered outside the 'Great Saddam Mosque', a gift to the local people ten years ago. It is closed to the worshippers and guarded by U.S. soldiers.

"It's a house of God and the Americans are drinking whisky inside," said one man. Here, the U.S. soldiers are certainly not seen as liberators but as occupiers.

But in Tikrit, more than in Owja, some people do not want to be associated with Saddam Hussein. "The whole world is screaming about Tikrit, but the president is from Owja," says Hadj Taher Hassan Ahmed, a prominent member of the Al Hele'am tribe.

There are five main tribes in Tikrit region, and they are all somehow related, but people who are not members of Saddam Hussein's tribe now emphasise their different roots. "We are only related something like 10 or 20 generations ago," says one man.

"It is not enough only to put Tikriti behind your name," says another. "He was from Owja, not from here."

One man who refuses to give his name will not disown Saddam. "He is still our President," he says. "We do not want the foreigners, we will rule ourselves and solve our own problems." There is a murmur of consent.

"Now we don't have security, water, electricity, jobs, nothing. We want freedom, democracy, all those things the Americans promised us. But they give us nothing," he begins to shout, getting worked up. People still agree with him, but when he says that Iraq had freedom and democracy under the old regime , some burst out laughing. "Come on, you have to tell the truth," says one man.

Tikrit is definitely better off than most Iraqi towns, if only by way of the many new and well-maintained government buildings. Some have been bombed, like the local museum. It is impossible to say what was inside the crumpled site.

Saddam Hussein's palace stands out also in Tikrit. It is a sprawling estate with an artificial lake and many palaces, staff housing and other buildings. The main palace took a direct hit in the bombing, but given its enormous size, only a small part has been destroyed.

The palace was designed for ceremonial occasions, with large reception rooms, marble floors, huge chandeliers and gold fittings , recognisable by now as Saddam's standard palace package.

In another large palace, which looks more lived in, volumes of leather-bound books with gold imprint are scattered on the floor. 'Saddam Hussein's Collected Works, 1987-1988' says one cover.

History now. One man near the Great Saddam Mosque takes a longer historical view . "Tikrit is more than Saddam Hussein," he says. "Saladin who defeated the crusaders was from here. We will do the same."