London: Several victims of the Saddam Hussein regime, currently on asylum in the UK,
have shed tears of joy as the dictator's larger-than-life-size statues were pulled
down in several places in Iraq, symbolising the end of his rule.
"We are thirsting for justice. We were overjoyed when Saddam's statues were pulled
down," Zara Mohammad, who was tortured by Saddam's soldiers in October 1981, told
reporters on April 10 night.
As a prisoner of the Saddam regime, Zara was once marched through a battlefield
during the war with Iran. Her ordeal became so great that she tried to run through a
minefield to try to end her life. She lost four of her brothers and several other
relatives to Saddam's henchmen, she said.
Nishat Ahmad, a Turkman who has a Masters degree in engineering, suffered torture to
such an extent that he was permanently disabled. Eleven members of his family,
including his parents and brothers have been murdered.
When Maher Soltan, a Kurd born in Baghdad, declined to join the military to fight
against Iran as he wanted to pursue his studies, he was tortured for 11 months,
sometimes for five to six hours a day. Subsequently, he was sentenced to Abu Ghareb
prison and was not allowed to communicate with the outside world for seven years.
His mother was imprisoned for one and a half years, after which she died. He was
totally jailed for 10 years.
Maher told reporters that he was happy that the coalition forces had destroyed the
torture chambers.
Dr Ossam Balal, an Iraqi Shiite said he was arrested with other medical students in
the 1970s. He was beaten, blindfolded and left hanging from the ceiling every day
for a minute while his family was brought to the prison to witness the torture.
Balal was transferred to Baghdad and imprisoned by the revolutionary court for 10
years. He was however, released after three years. He left Iraq in 1978 through the
borders with Iran. He was a medical doctor during the war, before he went to
Dubai and then to the UK.
Balal hoped that the US and UK would help establish a stable and Democratic
government in Iraq.
All the exiles are unanimous in their view that people who served Saddam Hussein
should not be included in the new ruling regime.
PTI
