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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The prospect of installing a mutilated statue of Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein in Sulaimani’s national museum of Amna Suraka has caused controversy.
The statue of Hussein was recovered from Kirkuk after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. It is set to be installed in the museum on April 9 - the anniversary of the fall of the Baath regime.
A Kurdish photographer who was covering the fall of the previous Iraqi regime said he had kept the statue in his home ever since.
“I entered Kirkuk on April 9 together with Kurdistan Peshmerga forces. On the next day, on the 10th of April, I noticed this statue in one of the neighborhoods. We brought down the statute with the help of American forces. American forces shot the face of the statue with several rounds,” Fayaq Hama Salih, the photographer, told Rudaw.
“The Americans kept part of the left hand, cut from the elbow, and kept that part for themselves,” he added.
Salih said he and a friend of his transported the statue to Sulaimani.
Amna Suraka, or the Red Security, was once a Saddam-era prison used for torture, the holding of prisoners, and interrogations. It has now been turned into a museum and a place to showcase culture. Etchings and writings on the walls, bullet holes, torture cells, and other items remain preserved as evidence of the Baathist-era atrocities against Kurds.
The museum also showcases the tragic history of Kurds, including the Anfal genocide and the ongoing struggle in the Kurdish parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The museum documents the use of torture and displays some Iraqi tanks and artillery captured from Iraqi forces.
The statue is set to be placed in the open air, in the yard.
“I believe installing that statue, now that it is mutilated, is normal. It shows the history of dictatorship in this area, that the fate of dictators would be like this. If we do not install such statues, it means we have no historical evidence to show it to the new generation,” Dawan Maruf, head of Jamal Nabaz Culture Institute told Rudaw.
For Ibrahim Rauf, a poet from Sulaimani, the statue is misleading. He believes it does not provide the historical context explaining the crimes committed at the hands of the Iraqi dictator that lasted for more than three decades.
“The installation of the statue in that location - if it is to show the fate of dictators, you must also present the terrible crimes he committed such as the Anfal genocide and the chemical attack,” Rauf said, referring to the genocide during which 182,000 Kurdish people were murdered.
Zardasht Faraj, a translator, said the need to show history as a whole is informative in helping to portray the struggle between good and evil.
“To introduce Ahura Mazda, you must also have to present Ahriman,” Faraj said. Ahura Mazda represents light and the supreme god in Zoroastrianism and Ahriman represents the devil and darkness.
“You have to showcase both,” he stressed.
The destruction of a large statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square marked the end of the Saddam regime in 2003. Iraqi civilians and American forces destroyed the statue, a symbolic event that was watched by millions across the world.
The statue of Hussein was recovered from Kirkuk after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. It is set to be installed in the museum on April 9 - the anniversary of the fall of the Baath regime.
A Kurdish photographer who was covering the fall of the previous Iraqi regime said he had kept the statue in his home ever since.
“I entered Kirkuk on April 9 together with Kurdistan Peshmerga forces. On the next day, on the 10th of April, I noticed this statue in one of the neighborhoods. We brought down the statute with the help of American forces. American forces shot the face of the statue with several rounds,” Fayaq Hama Salih, the photographer, told Rudaw.
“The Americans kept part of the left hand, cut from the elbow, and kept that part for themselves,” he added.
Salih said he and a friend of his transported the statue to Sulaimani.
Amna Suraka, or the Red Security, was once a Saddam-era prison used for torture, the holding of prisoners, and interrogations. It has now been turned into a museum and a place to showcase culture. Etchings and writings on the walls, bullet holes, torture cells, and other items remain preserved as evidence of the Baathist-era atrocities against Kurds.
The museum also showcases the tragic history of Kurds, including the Anfal genocide and the ongoing struggle in the Kurdish parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. The museum documents the use of torture and displays some Iraqi tanks and artillery captured from Iraqi forces.
The statue is set to be placed in the open air, in the yard.
“I believe installing that statue, now that it is mutilated, is normal. It shows the history of dictatorship in this area, that the fate of dictators would be like this. If we do not install such statues, it means we have no historical evidence to show it to the new generation,” Dawan Maruf, head of Jamal Nabaz Culture Institute told Rudaw.
For Ibrahim Rauf, a poet from Sulaimani, the statue is misleading. He believes it does not provide the historical context explaining the crimes committed at the hands of the Iraqi dictator that lasted for more than three decades.
“The installation of the statue in that location - if it is to show the fate of dictators, you must also present the terrible crimes he committed such as the Anfal genocide and the chemical attack,” Rauf said, referring to the genocide during which 182,000 Kurdish people were murdered.
Zardasht Faraj, a translator, said the need to show history as a whole is informative in helping to portray the struggle between good and evil.
“To introduce Ahura Mazda, you must also have to present Ahriman,” Faraj said. Ahura Mazda represents light and the supreme god in Zoroastrianism and Ahriman represents the devil and darkness.
“You have to showcase both,” he stressed.
The destruction of a large statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square marked the end of the Saddam regime in 2003. Iraqi civilians and American forces destroyed the statue, a symbolic event that was watched by millions across the world.
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