Iraqis here talk of relief, sense of justice

Faliha AlShukry and her family were glued to their television Friday night, counting down to Saddam Hussein's 7 p.m. execution.

At 7:01, the West Seattle family flipped from Arabic stations to CNN and MSNBC. When the news of Saddam's death came down minutes later, Faliha and her daughter, Bashair, couldn't contain their smiles.

"It's done," Faliha said in broken English. "I want to see [his body]."

With her daughter translating, she said: "You could not imagine my emotions, or how I feel about this. He ruined our life. He killed my uncle."

Her husband, Ammar AlShukry, fled Iraq 15 years ago as hostilities against Shiites increased in his small town near Babylon. He arrived in Seattle in 1995. His wife and four of his children, whom he hadn't seen since fleeing his home with only the clothes on his back, arrived here in 2000.

"Most of the Iraqi people have been waiting a long time to see today," said Ammar AlShukry, who works at a Ravenna barber shop. "The country is going to be more stabilized."

While AlShukry said he doesn't plan to return to Iraq in the near future, his wife and two of their children, Bashair, 18, and Hussain, 16, said they hope to return soon.

"When I see it is very safe, I will go back," Faliha said, Bashair AlShukry translating. "If the life is safe over there I will live over there. It's my country."

Bashair said she talked Friday with relatives who are still in Iraq. They were excited about the execution and would have liked a chance to shoot the former leader themselves, she said.

A friend and Evergreen High School classmate of the young woman sat on the couch with the AlShukry family watching the execution news coverage Friday night.

Mehvan Sulaiman, 18, who lives nearby, blames Saddam Hussein for killing his grandfather. Sulaiman, his six siblings and their parents fled northern Iraq in 2000 because of the persecution they and other Kurds were encountering.

In Iraq, the Sulaimans were nomads. They moved each time they heard that the Iraqi military had inched closer. Saddam Hussein had ordered troops to use poison gas to wipe out whole villages in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq.

"He killed millions of Kurds," Sulaiman said quietly. "He deserves this."

Sulaiman said that when he was a child, his grandmother told him that she doubted Saddam would ever be stopped. Sulaiman's grandfather promised the family that the dictator would be overthrown by the Americans. Sulaiman said his grandfather was later kidnapped and never seen again.

But as Sulaiman and the AlShukry family talked about the pain that Saddam Hussein brought to their families, 5-year-old Hassan AlShukry bounced around the room and showed off a picture of Donald Duck he had just colored.

The boy was born in Seattle and often complains loudly when his family talks of returning to Iraq. As the rest of the household tried to watch continuing execution coverage, Hassan flipped the television to cartoons.

His father said that without the memories his other children have, his youngest only views Iraq as a place full of violence. He said he is hopeful the boy will learn otherwise.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com