IRAQ: Mourners flock to gravesite of Saddam Hussein

Hundreds of Sunni Arab mourners from the hometown of Saddam Hussein flocked to the village of Awja on Tuesday (January 2) to visit the grave of the ousted president after he was buried in the dead night early on Sunday. The mourners chanted slogans for Saddam Hussein and carried his photos while visiting the burial site. As they gathered around the grave, surrounded by bouquets of flowers and sweets, some openly wept. Several later took to the streets, expressing anger and grief while chanting support slogans for Saddam Hussein. "With our souls, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves to Saddam Hussein," they chanted while carrying banners and photos of Saddam Hussein. Awja, a village of orchards and palm groves next to the Tigris river, is located approximately 150 km (90 miles), north of Baghdad. Saddam, 69, rose from poverty in Awja to rule Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a U.S. invasion in 2003. He was hanged for crimes against humanity at dawn on Saturday (December 31) for the killing and torture of Shi'ites in the 1980s. During his grip on power, Saddam surrounded himself with relatives from Awja and from nearby Tikrit, creating a praetorian circle of aides from the Sunni Arab Albu Nasir tribe. Testament to Saddam's patronage, Awja still shows today some grand villas next to more humble dwellings. It was near Awja that U.S. forces found a dishevelled and disoriented Saddam hiding in a pit covered with polystyrene and a rug, near a simple shack in an orange grove. On Tuesday (January 2) the government promised an investigation into illicitly filmed footage of Shi'ite officials taunting him on the gallows. The sectarian passions that have pushed Iraq towards civil war could be further inflamed by the hanging video, apparently filmed on a mobile phone, showing people chanting the name of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

ITN Source | January 2, 2007

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