Palestinians expressed anger on Wednesday over the death of Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay, accusing the United States of dispensing the same kind of summary justice as meted out by the Israeli army.
”The United States had no right to kill them. One cannot solve Iraq’s political problems by killing its people,” said Ahmed (54) a retired civil servant in Gaza City who would not give his family name.
”If the British and the Americans had been serious about wanting to help out the Iraqis they would have left a long time ago.
”Instead they occupy Iraq and kill just like the Israeli occupation,” he added angrily.
Lubna (60) said she was sorry ”over the loss of any human life”.
”They have a mother and a father and they must be devastated now.”
”They said on television that Saddam and his sons were criminals but we don’t have any proof. Maybe they should have been arrested instead and properly tried,” she added.
Her 18-year-old daughter Lamia interrupted: ”They should have been tried by the Iraqis not by the Americans.
”It’s up to the Iraqis to judge their own people not the Americans. What right did they have to kill in all impunity?”
”They’re just like the Israeli occupiers here!” she added.
But Lubna’s second daughter, Mona (20) who was also accompanying her to the Gaza City market, disagreed.
”We know from what was reported by the media that Saddam and his sons were criminals,” she said.
”An eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth. They killed so many of their people, they deserved to die. I just wish it was the Iraqis who took their revenge against their former leaders, not the Americans.”
Abu Ali, an unemployed 24-year-old, said he had been ”very pained” upon hearing news of the death of Uday and Qusay after a gunfight against all odds with US troops in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday.
”It’s a war crime! How could the Americans do that without proving their wrongdoings?” he asked.
”And they loved us Palestinians. There was not a single speech by Saddam where he did not allude to Palestine. I am sure he raised his sons accordingly.”
Hassan, a 30-year-old engineer, said that ”no other leader ever sided by us like Saddam did”.
”The Americans killed their sons. Soon it will be Saddam’s turn and no one will ever defend us anymore,” he sighed.
Saddam’s popularity soared in the West Bank and Gaza after the outbreak of the Intifada in September 2000, as the deposed Iraqi president sent millions of dollars to families of slain gunmen and suicide bombers.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat sided with Saddam during the 1991 Gulf War after the Iraqi leader linked any possible withdrawal from Kuwait to the plight of the Palestinians.
But the diplomatic fall-out from that alliance meant the Palestinian government kept its distance this time round.
Since his ousting in early April, many Palestinian refugees in Iraq have been punished for their apparent preferential treatment under Saddam. They have been evicted by their landlords and have been forced to shelter in tents. – Sapa-AFP