JAKARTA - Saddam Hussein is an unshakable figure. His leadership in Iraq lasted for 24 years. All methods were used by Saddam to maintain his power, including through repressive means. Saddam suppressed all potentials that he considered to be opposite, the potential that came from the community as well as those that rolled in among politicians.
Saddam was born on April 28, 1937 in one of the poorest regions in Iraq, Al-Awjah, Tirkit. He was born in a farming family. His father died while Saddam was in the womb of his mother. Saddam's path to becoming the President of Iraq as well as a phenomenal historical figure - in Iraq and in the world - began when he entered politics by joining the Baath Party.
In the Baath Party, Saddam played an important role. He was even involved in the overthrow of Abdul Rahman Arif's power in 1968. Power also fell to Hasan Al-Bakr, the leader of the Baath Party who led the operation to overthrow Abdul Rahman Arif. Saddam was appointed as deputy when Hasan Al-Bakr came to power.
Over time, Saddam's position continued to strengthen. He even succeeded in getting Hasan Al-Bakr to resign as President of Iraq. Saddam also managed to rise to become President of Iraq and leader of the Baath Party. Saddam then carried out a party cleansing of figures deemed incompatible with him. Since then Saddam's repressiveness has become more and more.
Those who opposed Saddam at that time were jailed for years. Some even died. Not only that. The Iraqi government under Saddam also carried out massacres against Kurds in northern Iraq and Shia people in southern Iraq.
Saddam's ambition to make Iraq the center of leadership for Arab countries to replace Egypt actually brought Iraq into a long war. A war aimed at achieving Iraqi control of the Persian Gulf.
In September 1980, Saddam launched attacks on Iranian oil fields. The attack, known as the First Gulf War, lasted eight years. The war only ended in 1988 due to disrupted oil exports and Iraq's burgeoning foreign debt.
Even so, Saddam continued to build Iraqi military strength. After feeling strong enough, Saddam returned to deploying Iraqi troops to invade neighboring Kuwait. The invasion, which began in August 1990, is known as the Second Gulf War. Saddam's target in the Second Gulf War was still the same, namely controlling Kuwait's oil to strengthen his country's economic income.
A ceasefire for Iraq
The Iraqi attack on Kuwait drew international condemnation. At that time Iraq was hit by a world trade embargo. The United Nations (UN) along with the United States and Saudi Arabia became the parties who strongly opposed Saddam's maneuvers. Even so, he still ignored criticism and was reluctant to withdraw his troops from Kuwait.
This made the United Nations Coalition consisting of the United States Army, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Bahrain, Qatar, Britain, Australia, Bangladesh and the Netherlands, fighting against Iraqi troops supported by the Soviet Union and North Korea.
Outnumbered by troops and military forces, Iraq, the Soviet Union and North Korea suffered a crushing defeat by the UN coalition attack, which forced them to withdraw their troops from Kuwait in January 1991.
The defeat caused Saddam to be widely criticized by his own people for costing hundreds of billions of dollars in life and material losses. The strong protests in particular came from the Kurds and Shiites. He responded to the criticism from the residents by sweeping the residential areas and kidnapping and killing them.
During the war, Saddam also used chemical weapons and bombs which caused the death of thousands of people. As part of the ceasefire agreement with the United Nations, Iraq is prohibited from producing or possessing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. In addition, other sanctions have caused severe economic disruption in Iraq.
Saddam's refusal to comply with a United Nations agreement to produce chemical weapons led to a four-day air strike by the United States and Great Britain in late 1998 known as Operation Desert Fox.
Several years after the attack from the United States and Britain, Saddam began to stop producing chemical and nuclear weapons. This is known from the confession of John Nixon, a CIA agent who interviewed Saddam Hussein in person after being arrested in 2003.
In his book entitled Debriefing The President: Interrogation of Saddam Hussein. John Nixon concluded that Saddam had abandoned Iraq's nuclear weapons program in early 2000 and had no intention of restarting it.
911
However, even though Iraq had abandoned their nuclear weapons program, the September 11, 2001 terror attacks - also known as the 911 attacks - brought disaster to Iraq and Saddam's rule. At that time, the President of the United States, George W Bush, accused Saddam of masterminding the terror acts that destroyed the WTC and the Pentagon.
Responding to the accusation, Saddam then invited the UN to investigate his country in 2002. Although the UN has investigated the accusation, the United States is not satisfied. Bush again accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction.
Bush also held an ultimatum for Saddam on March 17, 2003 to immediately resign as President of Iraq and leave Iraq within two days. Bush also threatened that if Saddam insisted on ignoring the ultimatum, the United States would launch an attack on Iraq.
Saddam's bluff was clearly ignored by Saddam, who had long been reluctant to be dictated by the United States, until Bush actually sent US troops to Iraq on March 20, 2003. In the invasion, the United States was assisted by Britain.
The attack targeted the capture of Saddam, dead or alive. Meanwhile, Saddam instructed his people to fight to sacrifice their lives against the coalition forces of the United States and Britain.
The resistance from the Iraqi side which was clearly unbalanced led to the fall of the capital Baghdad into the hands of the Americans and the British on April 9, 2003. Under conditions of urgency, Saddam fled and moved from one area to another. His escape was stopped on December 13, 2003. Saddam was arrested in Tikrit, near his birthplace.
The destruction of the power of a person to be reckoned with in Arab countries and internationally has left some Iraqis, who have long been constrained, to burst out with joy. They dropped a statue of Saddam in the city of Baghdad. The international media also used the demolition of the statue by the Iraqi people as a symbol of the fall of the regime called the most authoritarian leader in the Middle East.
The United States handed Saddam over to an internal Iraqi court, and a series of charges of war crimes and human rights violations were filed against him. Saddam was indicted for the Dujail massacre in 1982 and for the chemical gas attack on a Kurdish village during the 1986 Anfal operation. Data from Human Rights Watch estimates that between 50,000 and 100,000 people were killed during the Anfal operation. Meanwhile, Kurdish officials said there were 182 thousand casualties.
Sentenced to death
Since the trial process Saddam Hussein was imprisoned by American troops at the Camp Cropper military base, until finally on November 5, 2006, he was officially sentenced to death. Two months later, to be precise on December 30, 2006 when Eid al-Adha, history recorded that Saddam was executed by hanging.
The hanging of Saddam, who ruled Iraq for 24 years, was broadcast exclusively by Iraqi TV, even though the broadcast can still be seen today. His death became news that shocked the world at that time. Likewise for the Iraqi population. Some were happy because they considered Saddam a cruel person, others were sad because they considered the Iraqi leader a hero.
Meanwhile, John Nixon, the CIA agent who interrogated Saddam in his book entitled Debriefing The President: Interrogation of Saddam Hussein, gave the impression of Saddam as a charismatic person. In fact, he said Saddam's figure was in stark contrast to what was conveyed by the media in the United States.
"He is one of the most charismatic individuals I have ever met. When he can be impressive, kind, funny, and polite."
But according to Nixon, a Saddam can also show a dark side, he is a person who is rude, arrogant, and creepy when he runs out of patience.
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