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Hussein-Era Symbols Disappear Under Edict
Busts of Saddam Hussein, removed from his Republican Palace compound in 2003, now stand in a field used as a parking lot for U.S. military vehicles.
(By Jackie Spinner -- The Washington Post)
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"I am committed to keep these monuments as a historical representation," he said.
Noori Rawi, Iraq's minister of culture, said all memorials and statues related to Hussein and his nearly three decades in power will be moved to storage. Most of those depicting the deposed president have already been defaced or destroyed.
In one of the most memorable scenes of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Baghdad residents assisted by American armored vehicles pulled down a massive statue of Hussein on April 9, 2003.
"As Iraqis, we don't feel the need to keep these statues of a killer," Rawi said. "There is no need to show these things to the people. Maybe, only after 100 years, when there will be a new generation, we will show them that this is the man who destroyed Iraq."
In 2003, the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq spent $35,000 to remove four 30-foot-high busts of Hussein from his former Republican Palace in the Green Zone, where U.S. officials had set up camp. At the time, the Culture Ministry, which was being advised by the Americans, said the busts would be moved for safekeeping until a decision was made on what to do with them.
On a patio near the former Iraqi Captive Monument-- where a mural of Hussein has been replaced by one of a leading Shiite cleric, Abdul Aziz Hakim -- passersby expressed mixed views about the removal of the memorial. All that remained were the brick facade and spikes that had once held up the copper figures of the Iraqi soldier, tanks and a barricade.
"I was a war prisoner, and you can never imagine how much I suffered when in an Iranian prison," said Muhammad Hussein, 42, who sells cigarettes from a small shop. "Every time I passed that memorial, it made me remember and it made me feel good that Iraqis still remember."
Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, said he was opposed to removing the memorials and criticized what he perceived as the influence of Iranians in the decision.
"They are trying to change our history and fill the country with their sheik posters," he said. "We are going to be another Iran. In Iran, I had to tell them that I am Shiite and pray like Shiites so they would not hurt me."
But Sattar Hassan, 45, also a former prisoner of war, said he was happy the monument had been taken down.
"Every time I used to pass by this memorial, it reminded me of that war and increased the hate I have inside my heart," he said. "I transferred this hate to my children, so I think they have to remove those statues so we will forget. We cannot start a new Iraq if we do not turn the page on this past."
Special correspondents Bassam Sebti, Naseer Nouri and Omar Fekeiki contributed to this report.
