Baghdad crowd scorns Saddam's birthday with donkey fete
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Joyous crowds in Baghdad showed their scorn for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), mocking his birthday by dressing up a donkey as the fallen strongman and giving him a cake made of excrement.
"Today marks the commemoration of oppression and we will celebrate this anniversary every year," said Jaafar Saadun, the donkey's owner.
"We are no longer afraid for the first time in decades," said Saadun, speaking in the impoverished Sadr neighborhood formerly known as Saddam City, home to about two million Shiite Muslims.
A young man dressed as an Iraqi army general ceremonially took position near the donkey, which had been adorned with Saddam's pictures on both flanks and sported a hat and honorific military medals.
"He is protecting our president," joked a man in the crowd.
Saddam turned 66 on Monday although his whereabouts, if he is even still alive, are unknown.
Every symbol of his hated regime was methodically ridiculed, starting with the mock general riding the donkey and pretending to fire an old wooden rifle similar to that carried by Saddam in many official pictures.
A teenage boy brought a six-layer cake made of animal feces with Saddam's picture stuffed in between each layer, as beaming youths danced and sang "happy birthday Saddam" at the top of their lungs in both English and Arabic.
The pictures, portraying Saddam in military attire, had been torn out of children's schoolbooks. Other pictures that featured his two equally disliked sons, Uday and Qussay, were also covered in muck.
"For the first time in my life, I am not forced to attend Saddam's birthday ceremonies. He was a dictator, he was nothing but a donkey ruling over Iraq (news - web sites)," said Ali, 24. |
