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Saddam's Birthday Marked Without Fanfare

Monday, April 28, 2003
(8:17 AM)
By Bassem Mroue
Associated Press Writer

Saddam has made no public appearance since early April, and it is unclear if he is alive or dead. But he is clearly out of power across Iraq, as evidenced by the U.S. tanks and fighting vehicles in the capital and in cities such as Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.

A statue of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is riddled with heavy machine gun bullet holes outside a government building in central Baghdad April 25, 2003. Iraqis on Friday hailed the surrender of high-profile former deputy premier Tareq Aziz to U.S. forces, saying it proved the Saddam Hussein era was over.
Image Credit: Chris Helgren -- Reuters

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- AP
Saddam Hussein's 66th birthday arrived Monday with none of the elaborate fanfare of the past and a spate of rumors that the deposed dictator was still alive and planning something dastardly to mark the occasion.

Nearly three weeks after U.S. troops seized Baghdad, the compulsory mass celebrations that Saddam orchestrated yearly for his birthday were predictably absent.

“Today is a day of happiness for me, because we got rid of him. He destroyed us,'' said Munhal Taleb, 30, a carpenter. “We ask God that he never returns, because we are happy and - God willing - things will be better.''

An Iraqi air force colonel, Hussein al-Khafaji, also noted the change.

“Whenever we had those elections for president, everyone voted for him 100 percent,'' he told a reporter on a downtown street. “And today nothing will happen, and this will prove that none of us liked him, not a one.”
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2003 © The Associated Press.

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