ERBIL, Kurdistan – Most Iraqis do not know how to read a simple map. That is because, under the former regime, maps were secret. But how many of the habits and morals in present day Iraq are rooted in the 30-year rule of Saddam Hussein? What did the feared regime leave behind, eleven years after its fall on April 9, 2003?
Talking about Saddam’s legacy, Susan Berzinge, a politician of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), mentions the fear that his regime installed as a lasting legacy. “I see Saddam in my dreams. I dream that I get arrested and put in jail.”
“Everybody carries this fear inside, installed by the violence and the way people were punished. In Kurdistan people are afraid of Iraq’s future and another dictator.” The negative attitude of Saddam towards the Kurds is mirrored in the present Iraqi government, she feels. “Saddam is still alive in the Arab minds.”
For former English teacher Abdullah Sabir, from the Iraqi town of Kifri, the fear started in 1963 when the Baath party took power. “At many check points I still have to be careful not to provoke the guards. We have armed people in my region. People get killed.”
In the former regime, sons of officials had power and many misbehaved. “The sons and relatives of officials still can do what they want,” Sabir feels. “From the way they drive to their ownership of properties, politicians violate laws they themselves issued, for instance by marrying second wives.”
Saddam’s regime demanded a Baath party membership for most jobs. Sabir points out that an affiliation to the ruling parties still is the basis for employment in the military, police and administration.
Hanan Qia, a teacher from the Christian town of Al-Qosh in the Iraqi Nineveh province, blames Saddam for the present administrative corruption in Iraq. “A citizen can face big problems if he has to deal with any governmental office. Often, he has to pay bribes if he does not have powerful contacts.”
He makes an exception for the Kurdistan Region, “which maintains a higher level of democracy than the rest of Iraq, with more respect for citizen’s rights.”
According to Florin Gorgis, who works for the Kurdistan Government in Erbil, Saddam’s regime was able to divide society. “He affected the life of each citizen and family, of whatever religious or ethnic background. He segregated people, and doing so decreased the number of Assyrian Christians tremendously.”
After the fall of the regime Christians became the target of radical groups, causing even more to flee. Today, the number left in Iraq is about half that of 2003.
“We still see Saddam in everything bad,” says Diar Ahmed, a former CEO of telephone provider Asiacell, now studying for his MBA in Hong Kong. “He ruined the souls of the people. A system that makes you live in fear for over 40 years changes people and cannot be changed easily.”
People learnt from Saddam how to create fear, he says. “Al-Qaeda used it, and all others, even Kurds. Fear kills freedom, creativity, freedom of expression and will.”
What he calls “the sons of Saddam” daily remind him of the former regime. “Those in power are using what they learned from him, in cells, prisons and special torture chambers. Look at Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki. The difference is only in the magnitude of power; he is weaker than Saddam.”
Salam Abdulmunem, who became famous in 2003 for his blogs as Salam Pax, points out that “Iraqis still have a “one leader mentality.” As with Saddam, people only act when their highest boss tells them to.”
Under the former regime, the breakdown of civil law started in favor of tribal and religious law, he states. To stay in power, Saddam favored the tribes and put on a religious face. As a result, after 2003, some religious and tribal laws have become more important than the state’s law books.
He mentions the ration system, put in place during the international embargoes and still partly there. It affected the mentality of Iraqis. “It made people think that it is okay to live on handouts from the government.”
Like others, he still feels the fallout of the wars that Saddam fought, and that cost millions of lives. Many Iraqis lost family members. The propaganda was huge, remembers Abdulmunem: “My brain cells at random moments still fire off a million war songs from the Iran-Iraq war.”
Former Kurdish minister for Anfal and Martyrs, Chnar Abdullah, points to the scars Saddam’s anti-Kurdish operations left behind. “People still feel the pain of the attack on Halabja. Victims of chemical attacks still need treatment. Many still suffer psychologically. People who were evacuated in the Anfal operation lost their homes, and many destroyed villages have not been rebuilt. These victims still suffer from Saddam’s heritage.”
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