Chip off the old tyrannical block
Heirs of Saddam, Milosevic, Suharto, Kim come by their pathology honestly
Brian Hutchinson
National Post
(Let's maintain the status quo and one day Uday can be Saddam's successor, screw the Iraqi people, hail the peaceniks)
nationalpost.com
Is there a nastier bloke in Iraq than Saddam Hussein? Yes, there is: Saddam's eldest son, Uday.
The 38-year-old cigarette smuggler is notorious for his murderous rage, his scandalous debauchery, his greed, his women and more. Now come allegations that Iraq's National Olympic Committee, which Uday controls, tortures and kills unsuccessful athletes in his very own house of pain, tucked away in a bunker-like office complex in downtown Baghdad.
His supporters, had he any, would no doubt point to his miserable childhood as a cause for this unmitigated insouciance. Little Uday wasn't like most kids, after all. When his father wasn't gassing Kurds and plotting the death of Israel, he was exposing his boy to snuff films and torture sessions. Inevitably, Uday developed some issues.
He has company. Al-Saadi Qaddafi, Marko Milosevic, Tommy Suharto and Kim Jong-nam are all wayward sons of distracted tyrants, raised in opulence amidst fear and violence. All have been in positions of considerable power; some are still poised for succession.
Fast cars and chain saws, vicious dogs and electric prods: these are a few of their favourite things. What else do they have in common?
Miserable childhoods, for starters. Uday's former body double, Latif Yahia, recalls that when drunk (Johnny Walker Black Label being Uday's favourite tipple) the young Hussein would rail on at length about the many beatings he received from Saddam. Uday also cursed his father for cheating on his wife.
In 1988, before a crowd of on-lookers, a vengeful Uday attacked his father's favourite valet with a German-made nightstick, specially equipped with a stiletto and electric prods.
The valet died. A devastated Saddam sentenced his son to death, but later commuted the punishment. Uday did a brief stint in jail.
Upon his release, he resumed his campaign of terror, attacking his rivals and beating his mistresses. One woman, who complained of being abused, was later picked up and taken to Uday's farm, near Baghdad. There, she was reportedly stripped, smeared with honey and killed by a pack of ravenous Doberman pinschers.
Uday again fell out of Saddam's favour, this time for chasing two of his brothers-in-law into exile in Jordan; the two men were eventually lured back to Iraq, and then exterminated.
When Uday shot his uncle in the leg and killed six of his bodyguards, Saddam retaliated. He ordered the destruction of Uday's enormous collection of automobiles, stolen from Kuwait just prior to the Gulf War.
In 1996, Uday barely survived an assassination attempt which left him with a permanent limp. No one was arrested for the attack, prompting some to suspect it was ordered up by his father.
Saddam has given up any hope that Uday will one day replace him; his younger son, the mild-mannered Qusay, is being groomed for succession.
Uday has, however, attempted to rehabilitate his image, launching newspapers and television stations and draping himself with fanciful honours, including Iraq's Medal of Honour, an ersatz Olympic gold medal, and an academic title described as "one degree above" the level of doctorate.
But old habits die hard. Last month, the International Olympic Committee launched a formal investigation into allegations that Uday routinely jails and tortures Iraqi athletes who don't perform to his satisfaction. According to an affidavit, Uday has ordered athletes to crawl on freshly poured asphalt as they are beaten and whipped with cables. Some were reportedly thrown to their deaths from a bridge.
"Uday is a boy who was raised with everything, except any sense of right and wrong," explains Hamed al-Joburi, a former Iraqi diplomat who grew up with Saddam Hussein. "There is nothing he won't do."
"Remember," says another former Iraqi ambassador, Salah Omar Ali, "Saddam was raised by an abusive uncle who taught him how to kill when he was a child. Uday was raised just like his dad."
He may not share the same profile, but Al-Saadi Qaddafi almost rivals Uday in the nastiness department. The youngest son of Libya strongman Muammar Qaddafi, Al-Saadi, 28, heads the country's soccer federation and plays for its top team, Al-Ahli. He made headlines a few years ago for hiring disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson as the team's fitness trainer.
Al-Saadi is also known for having ordered Libyan troops to shoot dead 20 supporters of an opposing soccer club, after they made the supreme mistake of jeering referees who made calls in favour of Al-Ahli, during a 1996 match in Tripoli.
Three years ago, fans from a club in Benghazi mocked Al-Saadi, parading a donkey through the streets of their city. The animal was decked out in an Al-Ahli jersey with Al-Saadi's number 10. The young Qaddafi was not amused. He had Benghazi's soccer stadium demolished.
At best an average player, Al-Saadi likes to train with the elite Italian soccer club, Juventus; his father owns a minority stake in the team. Al-Saadi has lately mused about challenging for the presidency of the Confederation of African Football. "I'm ready to take the CAF presidency within the next five years," he has said. "I'm sure I'll be sitting firmly in the seat."
Marko Milosevic won't be running for public office anytime soon. The son of former Balkan autocrat Slobodan Milosevic, Marko has been accused of smuggling and murder during his days as Yugolsavia's First Son. He had the reputation of a playboy and was often seen careering about Belgrade in expensive sports cars. He once dyed his hair blond, in homage to his favourite race car driver, Canadian Jacques Villeneuve.
Marko would occasionally complain about life in the fast lane. "I've been isolated since I was 13," he once said. "All my life I have been the subject of gossip. Every girl that was with me, I suspected it was not for love. From time to time someone wants to kill me." Needless to say, he won little sympathy.
Marko is still reviled for his extravagant lifestyle and for the lucrative business empire he assembled while his father clung to power. Among his many interests, Marko ran a perfume shop in central Belgrade, called Scandal. The shop was ransacked by locals after his father's ouster in 2000. Marko fled in a convoy of Jeeps, but not before allegedly threatening a pro-democracy activist with a power saw.
Now 29, Marko is wanted in Serbia on assault charges. He is believed to be hiding out in Russia. His father, of course, is being tried for war crimes in the Hague. And his older sister, Marija, has also faced prosecution. She was tried for "endangering public safety and illegal possession of arms," after a shooting incident in April, 2001.
Hutomo (Tommy) Mandala Putra Suharto, youngest son of former Indonesian despot Suharto, may have never shot anyone; he did, however, hire assassins. Last year, the 41-year-old was sentenced to 15 years in jail, after being found guilty of arranging the murder of an Indonesian judge.
Tommy was never his father's favourite offspring; that honour goes to his older sister, Siti (Tutut) Hardiyanti Rukmana. Still, when in power, Suharto set up Tommy with a lucrative clove-trading monopoly. Cloves are a key ingredient in the manufacture of kreteks, highly-addictive cigarettes that half the Indonesian population smokes incessantly. Tommy was also allowed to create Indonesia's first private airline, and in 1996, he was given control of an ill-conceived "national" car program. Tommy's sedans, sluggish gas guzzlers manufactured in Korea, were vastly unpopular. He preferred Rolls Royces.
Finally, there is paunchy Kim Jong-nam, 32, an up-and-coming bully out of North Korea. Described as "a spoiled, ill-mannered child," Nam was once booted from a boarding school in Moscow, after complaining incessantly about the living conditions. These days, of course, all eyes are on his father, Kim Jong- il, North Korea's "beloved supreme commander" and nuclear weapons enthusiast, leaving Nam free to pursue his favourite hobbies: arms dealing and visiting prostitutes.
Nam caused headaches for his father back in 2001, when he was caught in Japan with a phony Dominican Republican passport and wads of cash. He claims he was in the country to visit Disneyland; Japanese authorities dismissed the story and chucked him out.
The incident deeply embarrassed his father, whom Nam is said to blame for his late mother's well-documented depression. Once favored to succeed Il, Nam's future is now uncertain. Officially, he is described as an instructor at North Korea's National Intelligence Agency. But observers say he is often seen "travelling abroad, especially in Europe, in the company of five female assistants."
No word yet on whether young Nam has developed a taste for torture. But there's still time. |
