NICOSIA: Branded the “Butcher of Baghdad” after the execution in March of London-based journalist Farzad Bazoft on spying charges Saddam Hussein shows him impervious to international censure but seeks respect.
In the image of the 12th century Sultan Saladdin he has wanted to be seen as the liberator of Jerusalem. He linked the Gulf with the Palestinian issue and carried out his threat to strike Israel.
By claiming Kuwait for Iraq he sought to correct what many Iraqis see as an historical injustice on the part of the British Empire.
Known in the region simply as Saddam the President ruled with an iron fist over a country of huge oil resources and a million-strong army with sophisticated military arsenal at least up until the war broke out on January 17 which all but wiped him out.
He is deeply feared by dissidents and political enemies.
Saddam Husseins extraordinary path to power in Baghdad through several years of underground activism exile and impoundment taught him the rigid rules for suppressing opposition.
The son of a peasant family Saddam Hussein Al-Takriti was born on April 28-1937 in a village near the town of Takrit birthplace of the famed 12th century sultan Saladdin on the banks of the Tigris some 100 miles (175 km) north of Baghdad.
Orphaned at an early age he left Takrit in 1955 for Baghdad where he continued his studies at the AlKarkh secondary school a hotbed of student nationalist activity.
The next year he took part in a coup attempt against King Faisal II though aborted it was a landmark in the Baath Party’s drive to power.
A military coup in July 1958 when the King was killed brought Abdul Karim Kassem to power. Mr Kassem allied himself to the Baath party’s bitter rivals the Moscow orientated communists.
Saddam Hussein was one of the 10 young men chosen by the Baath leadership to assassinate the military ruler in October1959. The attempt failed and he was condemned to death but escaped via Syria to Egypt.
During his stay in Egypt where he graduated in law he was profoundly influenced by the revolutionary rhetoric of President Gamal Abdel Nasser whose aim was the creation of a vast independent and united Arab realm.
Saddam returned to Baghdad after the overthrow and execution of Prime Minister Kassem in February 1963 and the formation of a new government under Baath leadership amid the political tumult the party were in turn overthrown later the same year and Saddam Hussein went underground.
Tracked down in November 1964 he tried to fight off the authorities in a gun battle until his ammunition ran out. He then spent two years in prison.
He managed to escape and concentrated his efforts on reorganizing the Baath. He formed a party militia that played a major role in bringing the Baath to undisputed power in 1968.
While Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr formally headed the state real authority lay in the hands of Saddam Hussein
Having seen the Baath collapse in 1963 he ensured that a strict authoritarianism reinforced by a powerful and loyal security service would fend off any sign of opposition to the party’s avowed ultimate aim of democratic rule carved under its guidance.
Mass executions were ordered in the 1970s amid reported assassination bids against the leadership prompting Amnesty International to classify Iraq among the worst violators of human rights.
Married in 1963 to his first cousin Sajida Khairallah Talfah Saddam Hussein has two sons and two daughters He has also married a second time.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 22, 1991
