Baghdad (AFP) - A decade after
Saddam Hussein's arrest, the now-executed Iraqi dictator's legacy of
conflicts, sanctions and repression still exact a heavy toll on the
country.
And as oil-rich
Iraq grows increasingly important to the global economy and regional
diplomacy, his legacy of a slow-moving, hierarchical bureaucracy and
corrupt decision-making processes have hamstrung a country looking to
rebuild.
Former members of
Saddam's now-banned Baath Party are still regularly barred from public
office, politicians tar opponents as "Baathists", and surging violence
is typically blamed on some combination of Saddam supporters and Sunni
militants.
At the same time,
public services that fell into disrepair during the years of conflict
have yet to be fully upgraded, unemployment remains high, corruption and
nepotism are rampant and analysts say members of Saddam's Sunni Arab
minority have yet to fully reconcile to losing power to Iraq's Shiite
majority.
"What is the new
social contract going to be?" asked Ayham Kamel, a London-based Middle
East analyst at the Eurasia Group consultancy.
"A
lot of Sunnis believe that there needs to be a shift ... putting the
Saddam legacy and the participation of Sunnis in his regime aside."
"We
need to get more power-sharing, and really send signals that the
conflict, and some of the tensions that existed between Sunnis and
Shiites during the Saddam era, is over, that there is a new path
forward."
"That is a very long-term issue."
Saddam was arrested on
December 13, 2003 outside the town of Dawr, where US soldiers found him
hiding in a specially-constructed hole in the ground.
Hundreds of thousands, most of them Shiites and Kurds, died at the hands of his government.
Countless
others suffered immeasurably as a result of the wars he waged against
Iran and Kuwait, the latter of which led to punishing sanctions that
crippled Iraq's economy.
At
the time, US and Iraqi officials hailed his capture as a turning point
in the war, and voiced optimism that by nabbing him, they had dealt a
critical blow to the insurgency.
But
in fact, violence only worsened as time went on, peaking in 2006 and
2007, when tens of thousands were killed in nationwide sectarian
bloodletting, and only falling off somewhat from 2008 onwards.
Unrest
has surged again this year, fuelled by widespread discontent among
Sunni Arabs, who complain of mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led
authorities and have held anti-government demonstrations for almost a
year.
And some violent groups actually include supporters of Saddam's regime.
"The decade has represented
change, and fostered hope among the people," Bashar Hanna, a
40-year-old government translator, said on Saadun Street in central
Baghdad. "Unfortunately, the changes have not met the demands of the
people."
'Everything is still broken'
Iraqis
still suffer from poor electricity provision and a general lack of
basic services, with particularly inadequate sewerage highlighted by
recent rains that sparked deadly floods.
And
though oil production has increased, with exports projected to rise
dramatically next year, the industry is not labour-intensive and so has
not significantly impacted chronically high levels of unemployment.
Many
also complain that the revenues have not filtered through equitably to
all Iraqis, while the broader economy remains hampered by endless and
often conflicting red tape.
And
graft has, if anything, worsened, with Iraq now rated the world's
seventh-most corrupt country, according to Transparency International.
"After 10 years, everything is still broken," said Ihsan al-Shammari, a professor of politics at Baghdad University.
"Unfortunately,
this has caused many Iraqis to make comparisons about the achievements
of the former regime in terms of security to the marginal improvement in
services by the new democratic system."
Officials
and supporters of the government point to breakthroughs in terms of
freedom of expression and religion since Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime
fell.
Millions of Shiite
Muslims now throng shrine cities for commemoration rituals that were
banned during the dictator's rule, while the criticism of the government
that is now relatively common via media outlets and the Internet would
not have been tolerated under Saddam.
"When you go around Iraq and compare Iraq to 2002, 2003, it's a major shift," said Sami al-Askari, a secular Shiite MP.
"If
you're looking, from freedom to democracy to employment to (the)
economy to many, many other things, (there are) lots of changes."
"No
one talks about this, they talk about the (sectarianism), talking about
the killings. ... But if we compare Iraq now to 10 years ago, you will
find many, many points, positive ones.
"It's not an easy task, taking a society from one regime to another."
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