Victims of Saddam Hussein May Get Compensation

By Charles Mahaleris
Talon News
May 27, 2004

Seven men, former prisoners of dictator Saddam Hussein, found themselves shaking hands with President George Bush on Tuesday. By Wednesday, they learned that they may be entitled to compensation for the torture they endured that had cost them their hands.

The beauty of the White House served as stark contrast to the deprivations they endured while captives of Hussein, who ordered their hands cut off in what President Bush described as "examples of the brutality of the tyrant."

On Wednesday, Ambassador L. Paul Bremmer announced that the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq had created a special task force on compensation for victims of the Hussein regime.

"No government or any other institution can erase these past abuses or remove the scars they have left behind. However, compensation can provide an element of justice to those who suffered under Saddam's brutally oppressive regime," Bremer said.

Dr. Malek Dohan Al-Hassan, president of the Iraqi Bar Association, has agreed to serve as chair for this task force.

Bremer said the abuses doled out by the Hussein government came in varied ways for a multitude of perceived and real threats to his unjust government. Those who were regarded as opposing his leadership could have found themselves unemployed, behind bars, beaten, mutilated, or assassinated.

Senior Advisor Dan Senor said, "The history of these abuses is complex and involves many thousands of people."

The Coalition has set aside $25 million for initial payments to victims as well as the operating costs of the Task Force. The Task Force is charged with providing the new government, which will begin operations in Iraq on July 1, a report on its progress by August.

The U.S.-led coalition that ousted and later captured Hussein learned from victims of his inhumanity.

"He executed my brother and my brother-in-law in 1979, so I am most happy to hear of his capture," Saad Hassan, a Baghdad business owner told The Boston Globe last December.

Iraqi farmer Muhammad al-Hussein told one newspaper, "The truth is, Saddam gave us nothing but cruelty, he looked after nobody but his own family. He was a tyrant. He gave us nothing."

Asma Tome, a doctor and a member of the Kademiyah city advisory council's subcommittee on women and childhood, said, "A lot of families do not have fathers or husbands because of Saddam Hussein. Women are taking their rightful places with men, to help rebuild our country. I believe if a woman is efficient, she will shoot like a missile to the top of success."

The men who met with President Bush -- the ones who had been tortured by Saddam Hussein -- were given new prosthetic hands by American doctors.