BAGHDAD — The soaring half domes of the Martyr
Monument stand out against the drabness of eastern Baghdad, not far
from where Saddam Hussein's feared eldest son was said to torture
underperforming athletes.
Saddam built the split teardrop-shaped sculpture in the middle of a
manmade lake in the early 1980s to commemorate Iraqis killed in the
Iran-Iraq War. The names of hundreds of thousands of fallen Iraqi
soldiers are inscribed in simple Arabic script around the base.
Today the monument stands as a memorial to a different sort of martyr.
In recent years, the government has begun turning it into a museum
honoring the overwhelmingly Shiite and Kurdish victims of Saddam's
regime.
The transformation of the Martyr Monument and other Saddam-era sites
highlights Iraq's effort to memorialize those persecuted by the former
dictator and purge many symbols of his rule. Yet a decade on from the
US-led invasion, Iraqis still grapple with the country's postwar
identity and how much should be done to cleanse Iraq of traces of the
strongman.
It is a tricky balancing act that risks exacerbating Iraq's already
strained sectarian tensions. Many Iraqi Sunnis today feel their sect
has been marginalized and unfairly persecuted by Shiite Prime Minister
Nouri Al-Maliki's government. For Baghdad, the historical clean-up
effort has the added benefit of ridding Iraq of many uncomfortable
references to war with Shiite heavyweight Iran, an increasingly
important ally.
The Martyr Monument now features mannequins striking gruesome, if not
particularly convincing, poses to display firing-squad executions and
the unearthing of mass graves. Also depicted here are the poison-gas
killings of some 5,000 Kurds by Saddam's forces in the northern town of
Halabja 25 years ago this month.
Kifah Haider, spokesman for the government-backed Establishment of
Martyrs, which oversees the site, denied that the museum gives
preference to certain victims over others.
"We wanted to document the crimes of the former regime," he said. "It's
so this generation learns about the crimes they didn't have to live
through."
The site plays up the majority Shiites' role in opposing Saddam's rule.
Images of turbaned Shiite clerics, including many family members and
political allies of Iraq's postwar political elite, gaze down upon
visitors. One banner depicts Al-Maliki signing Saddam's execution order.
Posters show hellish fires superimposed on photos of the ousted
leader.
The Martyr Monument is located some 2.5 miles (four kilometers) from
Firdous Square, where 10 years ago on live television U.S. Marines
memorably hauled down a Soviet-style statue of Saddam, symbolically
ending his rule.
Today, that pedestal in central Baghdad stands empty. Bent iron
beams sprout from the top, and posters of anti-American Shiite cleric
Muqtada Al-Sadr in military fatigues are pasted on the sides.
But Saddam's grandiose creations live on elsewhere.
The crossed-sword archways he commissioned during Iraq's nearly
eight-year war with Iran stand defiantly on a little-used parade ground
inside the Green Zone, the fortified district that houses the
sprawling US Embassy and several government offices.
Iraqi officials began tearing down the archways in 2007 but quickly
halted those plans and then started restoring the monument two years
ago. Nevertheless, the hundreds of Iranian soldiers' helmets that once
spilled from the base of the sculptures, suggesting an Iranian defeat
that never actually happened, were removed.
Other insults to neighboring Iran, with which the postwar Iraqi
government has increasingly close ties, have been scrapped too. A
statue of a pilot who once stood atop the wreckage of an Iranian
fighter jet recently disappeared from downtown Baghdad.
Some Shiites say more needs to be done to exorcise Saddam's specter and that of the now-outlawed Baath party he once led.
"The removal campaign should go on until we get rid of everything that
reminds us of this criminal and his party," Shiite lawmaker Ali Al-Alaq
said.
But other Iraqis fear that too much of Saddam's larger-than-life legacy has already been lost.
Sinan Al-Obeidi, a history professor at Al-Mustansiriya University in
Baghdad, argues that some Saddam statues and other works should have
been kept so future generations can learn what his rule was like.
"If every ruler ... destroyed remnants of the previous era or
civilization, then we would not have any antiquities or archaeological
sites left to see," he said.
Baghdad-based artist Nassir Al-Rubaie understands the desire to rid
Iraq of Saddam's statues, but he fears things have gone too far.
"Unfortunately, some of the people who are handling the removal issue have no understanding of the meaning of art," he said.
It was easy to wipe away some traces of the dictator's legacy, like
renaming Saddam International Airport — now Baghdad International — or
Baghdad's double-decker Leader Bridge, now known as Hassanain BridgE.
New banknotes without Saddam's portrait began circulating within months
of the invasion.
Other relics from Saddam's cult of personality have proved trickier to address.
Religious officials from Saddam's Sunni sect are reluctant to discuss
the fate of a Holy Qur'an allegedly written in blood donated by the
leader during the 1990s. The book was once held in a Baghdad mosque
previously named "The Mother of All Battles" that has minarets said to
resemble Kalashnikov barrels and Scud missiles.
Mahmoud Al-Sumaidaie, the deputy head of Iraq's Sunni Endowment, which
oversees the sect's holy sites, said it's no longer there. But he was
cagey about its current location. He would confirm only that the book
is in Iraq and declined a request by The Associated Press to see it.
"We are working hard not to provoke anyone," he said. "A day might come when the country is totally stable and we can show it."
Modern bricks stamped with Saddam's name that were used in heavy-handed
reconstruction efforts during his rule still mar the ancient site of
Babylon, long associated with the legendary hanging gardens and the
Tower of Babel.
One of the few remaining public images of Saddam, in bas relief,
stands inside the rarely visited archaeological site — defaced with
graffiti and bullet holes.
Elsewhere in Iraq, some parts of Saddam's legacy have been literally painted over.
In the central square of Baghdad's Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite
stronghold once named Saddam City, a large outdoor image of the ousted
leader commanding his troops has been replaced with a painting of
Al-Sadr's father and father-in-law, both ayatollahs.
Back at the turquoise-tiled Martyr Monument in Baghdad, visitors
said they were moved by the exhibits, which include a graphic film
depicting Saddam's crimes. Many were just happy to have a chance to
take cell-phone snapshots of themselves with the towering sculpture.
"It's a big contradiction here. He built this monument, and now it's
being used to show his crimes," said Abeer Ali, a student at Baghdad's
Institute of Applied Arts. But, she added, perhaps the monument's new
use is fitting.
"Saddam is now giving his victims immortality," she said. — AP
