By Ben Nakomo
The controversial life of Saddam Hussein was brought to an end at dawn on Saturday, December 30, 2006, between 0530 and 0545 Iraq local time. Saddam Hussein was executed, just as the call to prayer was sounding across Baghdad. A representative of the Iraqi prime minister and a Sunni Muslim cleric, were brought to witness the execution. Reports from the Iraqi PM's Office hold that Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half brother, and the former chief judge Alwad al-Bandar, who were sentenced to death alongside Saddam, were not with him. They will be executed at a later date.
The execution was snappy, taking just a few minutes. Saddam was brought in carrying a copy of the Koran, and the sentence was read out to him. The noose was placed around his neck, then Saddam defiantly repeated the Muslim statement of faith. Saddam refused to wear the hood. When the chief executioner went to put the hood over his head, Saddam made it clear he wanted to die without it. It was his last action of defiance. Then the trap door was released and he was hanged. The entire process took just a few minutes. This closes the Saddam chapter, that included his love-hate relationship with successive US governments.
Reactions from the streets in Cameroon and the African continent have been mixed. When Saddam murdered thousands of his people with chemical weapons, he was an ally to the Americans. He even received high profile visits from American government officials, with tacit complicity and support during the Iran-Iraq war.
Saddam would be remembered not only as a dictator, but a shining example of the machinations of American foreign policy. Amidst the misery and destruction following US invasion in 2003, on purported search for weapons of mass destruction, the unfolding events in the months ahead will define the trajectory of the resurgence of Iraq as a viable democratic state. The state-of-affairs in Iraq echoes some pertinent lessons to African dictatorships and fickle US dictatorial allies around the world. © The Entrepreneur Newspaper 2007. All Rights Reserved.
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