- AD DAWR 12-17-3 --
The squalor and degradation of Saddam Hussein's last days were revealed
to the world yesterday.
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- In his eight months as a fugitive, the ousted Iraqi dictator
- who once boasted 68 palaces - was reduced to living in a filthy hideaway,
eating only rice and chocolate.
-
- While every one of his former bathrooms boasted ostentatious
gold fittings, he had to use an open trench as a toilet.
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- And every time danger approached he disappeared down
his pathetic rat-hole, hardly bigger than a grave.
-
- The ultimate humiliation for Saddam was not the fact
that he looked like a beggar when caught by US soldiers on Saturday, but
the hovel in which he was hidden.
-
- The route to the group of semi-derelict farm buildings
where he hid was along tracks cut through fields of giant sunflowers, corn
and neglected orange and lemon orchards.
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- The entrance is through a battered gate, long in need
of a coat of paint. Inside, the rough buildings barely provide shelter
from the heat of summer or the rains of winter. Extra protection is provided
by date palms and eucalyptus trees.
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- The hut, brick-built but covered by a layer of mud painted
grey, consists of one room with two beds and a fridge.
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- Rotting food and dirty clothes are strewn throughout.
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- On a table beside Saddam's bed were books - many novels
and some of poems. One book stood out: an Arabic translation of Fyodor
Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.
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- Inside the fridge were a can of 7-up, a packet of hot
dogs, several Bounty bars, an opened box of Belgian chocolates and a tube
of ointment.
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- A second building, open to the elements at one end, was
used as a kitchen with a sink fed by water from a cistern on top of a chicken
coop.
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- Surprisingly for a man never reluctant to invoke the
will of Allah, pinned to the outside wall of the hut was a cardboard poster
depicting Biblical scenes such as the Last Supper and the Madonna and Child,
with the English inscription God bless our home.
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- In the bedroom was a calendar in Arabic with a colourful
depiction of Noah's Ark.
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- Soldiers were surprised at the Christian decorations,
at the poverty of Saddam's existence and most of all at the fact that he
had given up without a fight, particularly as two AK-47 rifles were found
in the hut, along with $US750,000 in cash.
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- Outside the dictator's hideaway, through the kitchen,
was a French-style shower and toilet - long since blocked. It was clear
that the trenches nearby were being used instead.
-
- In the kitchen there was old bread standing on a counter,
left-over rice in a pot, broken eggs on the floor and dirty dishes in the
sink.
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- A torn-off piece of old white towelling was thrown across
the door to the rat-hole. Beneath was a strip of plastic foam with two
wire handles connected to a polystyrene box painted to look like a concrete
manhole cover.
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- It was light and easy to lift, revealing the secret chamber.
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- The underground hiding place showed signs of careful
construction: eight heavy wood slats supported the roof, a fluorescent
light hung on the left side and an electric exhaust fan was installed on
the right. The space was not high enough to sit upright, but was long enough
for a man to lie flat.
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- To one side of the buildings a track led through the
grove of date palms to the Tigris. US experts now believe Saddam used the
river as a way of travelling between the 20 to 30 hiding places he used
during his eight months on the run.
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- Copyright 2003 News Limited.
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