Reactions to Saddam Fate Diverge Among Baghdad Residents

BAGHDAD, Iraq — On a momentous day in a locked-down city, two men who live on adjacent streets sat alone in their bedrooms yesterday morning to watch the same televised event, only for different reasons. Husam Muhammad, a Sunni Muslim, ordered his family not to disturb him. Mahmoud Abdallah, a Shiite Muslim, simply closed his door.“I knew I was going to cry,” Mr. Muhammad, 55, a former Agriculture Ministry official, said. “And it’s a shame to cry in front of my family.”“I wanted to enjoy this moment by myself, without interruption,” Mr. Abdallah, 26, a merchant who sells electrical appliances, said.Less than an hour later, the deposed Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, and two co-defendants were convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. Mr. Muhammad cried. Mr. Abdallah smiled.“I lost control at that moment,” Mr. Muhammad said. “Iraq without Saddam Hussein, or a man like Saddam Hussein, will never be Iraq.”“This man is a dictator,” Mr. Abdallah said. “He insulted this country and its people. He deserved this punishment.”Here in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, Saddam’s death sentence evoked strong and divergent emotions, mirroring sentiments across Iraq. They spoke to the dramatic shift in fortunes of Iraq’s two major sects that began after the American-led invasion and continues to unfold.For the Sunnis of Kadhimiyah, the verdict delivered another nail into the coffin of the man many still see as the leader of their community, which once ruled Iraq but now feels besieged. The sentence, some said, was the work of a victor’s court that was interested more in vendetta than in judicial fairness.“Every honest and free Iraqi person will be very sad about the verdict,” a Sunni merchant, Ali Safar, 52, said. “And every person who is not honest and free will be happy.”The verdict deepened Sunnis’ fears about their future in an Iraq dominated by a Shiite-led government and plagued by sectarian strife. “You’ve heard at the airport the term, ‘The visibility is zero’?” Mr. Muhammad asked. “Just like that, for us the visibility is zero. We cannot see what’s next for us.”For the more numerous Shiites of Kadhimiyah, after decades of repression under Saddam’s government, the verdict delivered justice they have long sought. Many vividly remember the executions of 148 men and children in the town of Dujail ordered by Saddam following a botched assassination attempt in 1982. They also remember the Anfal campaign, in which Saddam is accused of ordering the mass killings of ethnic Kurds in the late 1980s.“We were waiting for this day more than 20 years,” Hani Ismael, 35, a Shiite laborer who lives five houses down from Mr. Muhammad, said. “I do not wish him to be hanged, but I wish him more torture in his grave.”Shiites also rejoiced in the hope that their political future in Iraq and in the region would become more secure. Would the verdict convince Saddam loyalists to abandon the Sunni Arab insurgency? Would it boost the chances of embattled Prime Minister al-Maliki, a Shiite, to stabilize his divided country? “I am optimistic for the future. This will help the Shiite leaders,” Mr. Abdallah said. “I feel this gang that was controlling the country is now finished. God willing, those people supporting Saddam and his Baathists, when they hear about this decision, they will be finished.”After the verdict, the streets of Kadhimiyah erupted in celebration, despite a government-imposed curfew, as Shiites unleashed their joy. Shiite policemen played religious songs and chanted the names of Shiite martyrs. Some danced, wagging their handguns. Others handed out candies to residents who defied the curfew.Jubilant Shiites shot guns into the air, so much that representatives of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were dispatched to houses to order the revelers to stop. The bullets, they told the gleeful gunmen, were needed to strike at their enemies.Sunnis stayed inside their homes, fearing for their safety. Mr. Muhammad said he is the only Sunni left on his street. Sectarian tensions chased the rest away. As celebratory gunfire popped around his house, he said he spent his Sunday listening to news reports. He took some comfort that two human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, condemned the death sentence, saying the trial was unfair and marred by serious flaws.“Saddam was accused of killing 148 people. Now, more than 148 innocent people are getting killed in Iraq every day,” Mr. Muhammad said. “His era is better than the era we are living in now.”Despite their differences, Messrs. Abdallah and Muhammad share a similar prediction for the immediate future. “I am expecting a big reaction from the terrorists in response to the Saddam verdict,” Mr. Abdallah said.Mr. Muhammad said: “The civil war is coming.”

Reactions to Saddam Fate Diverge Among Baghdad Residents

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