Iraqi who tried to topple Saddam statue regrets it
03/11/2013 23:17
10 years later, man famous for trying to bring down statue with sledgehammer regrets that Saddam is gone.
US marine watches as Saddam Hussein statue falls Photo: reuters
Kadom al-Jabouri, who became famous 10 years ago for trying to topple a statue
of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad with a sledgehammer, now tells the British Observer
he regrets that the dictator was ousted because of the chaos that
followed.
Jabouri tried to bring down the statue by chipping away at its
stone base. It eventually was pulled down with the help of a US tank
carrier.
He told the Observer he hated Saddam but was disappointed with
the aftermath.
“Then we had only one dictator. Now we have
hundreds,” he complained.
“Nothing has changed for the
better.”
Jabouri spent 11 years in Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam after
demanding payment from Saddam’s son Uday for fixing his motorbike, according to
the report.
The time in jail is what led him to seek revenge and try to
tear down the statue.
He blamed the current situation on the
US.
“The Americans began it,” he told the paper. “And then with the
politicians they destroyed the country. Nothing has changed. And things seem to
get worse all the time. There’s no future. Not as long as the political parties
running the country are in power.”