Region | Iraq
Iraqis ponder their violent history after execution
When Ali Mohammad was woken by gunfire celebrating the hanging of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain, he thought about the lessons of history in his country where rulers tend not to die quietly in their beds.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 January 2, 2007
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Residents hold a banner during a protest condemning the execution of Saddam Hussain in Baghdad's Sunni district of Adhamiya.
Baghdad: When Ali Mohammad was woken by gunfire celebrating the hanging of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain, he thought about the lessons of history in his country where rulers tend not to die quietly in their beds.
"When I realised Saddam had been executed I was very happy," said the 25-year-old student from the southern city of Diwaniya.
"I started watching television and it occurred to me that the end of every president in Iraq is either execution or assassination. I find that troubling."
Even in a region where power rarely changes hands through elections, Iraq has proved a dangerous place to rule.
"If you think of '58, '68 and '79, you can now put 2006 on this list a propagandistic show trial, a quick execution and a claim that this marks a watershed in Iraqi history," said Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert at Queen Mary, University of London.
Businessman Atheer Abdullah, 43, said Iraq, which has the world's third biggest oil reserves and two major rivers, should be a prosperous country but had squandered its natural wealth.
"It is a cursed country with a cursed history," he said as he waited at Baghdad airport to fly to Jordan where he now lives. "It's a country that two-thirds of the population flees at every regime change and the rest are in prison or killed or living in misery."
A nation steeped in a bloody past
- King Gazi Took the throne in 1933 on the death of his father King Faisal I, the first British-installed monarch. He died in a suspicious car crash six years later.
- Bakr Sidiqqi Led a 1936 military coup under the monarchy, was assassinated by fellow soldiers in 1937.
- King Faisal II Killed in his palace during the July 14 revolution of 1958, along with Crown Prince Abdul Allah and Prime Minister Nouri Al Said, the power behind the throne.
- Abdul Karim Kassem Took power on the 1958 declaration of a republic. He survived an assassination attempt a year later by Saddam Hussain but died in a military coup in 1963.
- Abd Salam Mohammad Arif Made president after the 1963 coup and jailed his erstwhile Baathist allies, including Saddam, within months of seizing power. He died in an air crash in 1966.
- Abd Al Rahman Mohammad Arif Succeeded his brother but was deposed by the Baath party coup of July 20, 1968 and exiled.
- Ahmad Hassan Al Bakr Installed as president by the 1968 coup, he was eclipsed by his kinsman Saddam during the 1970s and formally forced aside by him in 1979. Al Bakr died three years later. Many believe he was poisoned on Saddam's orders.
- Saddam Hussain Took control of the Baath party behind the scenes before ousting Al Bakr and becoming president in 1979. Survived an assassination attempt in 1982 at Dujail. Overthrown by US invasion of 2003 and hanged on December 30.
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