Saddam's clan: "The will of revenge" is behind not allowing us to return to our homes

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[size=52]Saddam's clan: "The will of revenge" is behind not allowing us to return to our homes[/size]

[size=45]The city of Al-Awja has turned into a military barracks for a faction of the "Hashd"
March 18, 2023
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US forces in the center of Tikrit, April 2003 (Getty Images)
Baghdad: Fadel Al-Nashmi
More than a thousand families from the Al-Awja area, the birthplace of the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, have been living outside their homes for a year 2014, which witnessed the rise of ISIS and its control over large parts of the governorates of western and northern Iraq, including Salah al-Din Governorate.[/size]
[size=45]The military authorities in Al-Awja, which is located on the banks of the Tigris River and is about 10 kilometers south of the city of Tikrit, the center of Salah al-Din Governorate, give various reasons and pretexts for not allowing the return of these families, including that some of the residents of the region had sympathized with the terrorist organization, and some of them participated in most of its criminal acts. However, a corresponding point of view believes that the matter is an attempt to take revenge on the region and its inhabitants, given that the majority of them are relatives and kinsmen of the late President Saddam Hussein, and before the fall of his rule in 2003, it was one of the most influential and powerful regions of Iraq in the country. As for today, its inhabitants are distributed in the diaspora of the land, as a large part of them took refuge in the Kurdistan region, and some of them went to live in the city of Tikrit, and there are those who preferred to immigrate to Turkey or Western countries.[/size]
[size=45]Falah al-Nada, the son of the sheikh of the Albu Nasser clan, to which Saddam Hussein belongs, says about the diaspora of the people of al-Awja and their living conditions: “We are not alone in this aspect, as there are other families who were not allowed to return to their homes, such as the people of Jurf al-Sakhr, but our misfortune seems exceptional in view of Because of our closeness to the late President Saddam Hussein. Al-Nada added, in a phone call from his residence in the Kurdistan region, to Asharq Al-Awsat, that “the new regime has placed us in the category of permanent enemies who are not allowed to return, and perhaps to live. And in 2003, Law No. 88 was issued, which considered all the people of Al-Awja to be cronies of the former regime, and decided to seize their movable and immovable money, before the decision was canceled in 2018.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Nada is surprised by the decision to prevent the return of the people, and finds no justification other than saying “the will for revenge.” And he continues: «I imagine that the former deputy head of the crowd, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (assassinated by America in 2020), made efforts at the time for the return of the people, and the matter did not succeed, and I also imagine that a delegation from the city met with the Iranian ambassador, who enjoys wide influence in Iraq, and the meeting did not result in anything. It is mentioned, rather, that orders to return were issued by the Prime Ministry at different times, and they were ignored. He added, "There were many commendable efforts made by clan and political trends, but it did not succeed. They tell us sometimes that the clans in Salah al-Din do not want your return, and we see the clans there striving hard for our return."[/size]
[size=45]When asked about the conditions of the city of Al-Awja 20 years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, Falah Al-Nada says: “We do not know, but the city has turned into a military barracks controlled by a faction affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces. We also learned that this faction allowed some buffalo breeders to exist in the region, given that it is located on the banks of the Tigris, and we also hear about agricultural investments in it. Regarding the tomb of the late President Saddam Hussein in Al-Awja, Al-Nada said: "It turned into rubble after a faction of the Hashd destroyed it in 2015, following the expulsion of ISIS elements from the city."[/size]
[size=45]For his part, Marwan Jabara, a spokesman for the Council of Elders of Salah al-Din Governorate, agrees with the information provided by al-Nada, telling Asharq Al-Awsat that, “The council made and is making continuous efforts for the return of the people of Al-Awja for years, but it did not succeed in that. We believe The state must hold the perpetrators or those involved in acts of murder or terrorism accountable, in accordance with the law, and allow the return of those not involved and ordinary people, even if they were related to the late president.[/size]
[size=45]Jubara added, “The strangest thing faced by the residents of Al-Awja or the president’s relatives, as they are called, is that some of them fell between the jaws of terrorist organizations on the one hand, and the security authorities and the PMF factions on the other. In 2006, al-Qaeda assassinated Sheikh Mahmoud al-Nada, and the organization returned in 2008 and assassinated his brother (uncles of Falah al-Nada), and today they are prevented from returning to their homes by security orders. Jubara believes that "it is very appropriate for the government and the state to order the return of the people in the Al-Awja area in order to turn the page on the bitter past and avoid useless cases of revenge and revenge.[/size]
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