"The Enemy of Humanity"

Iraqi artist speaks out against both Saddam and sanctions

Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi refugee and dissident. He was arrested three times by the Iraqi government for producing art that was critical of the regime and was among one of the first students at Baghdad University to refuse to join in the invasion of Kuwait. As a result he was blacklisted by the government and soon found himself involved in the popular uprising that temporarily liberated his city from Hussein's control at the end of Desert Storm. Wafaa was forced to leave Iraq after the rebellion was crushed, and spent two years in refugee camps before being granted asylum in the United States. He now lives in Albuquerque NM, where he works as an artist and writer. He is the founder of the New Mexico group, Peace with Iraq. Below is his story, in his own words.

My art is most influenced by the pain and suffering I experienced growing up during the Iran-Iraq war which began in 1980 and under Saddam Hussein's repressive rule which began in 1968. Etched in my memory are visions of death, terror, and the anguish of the Iraqi people. From childhood to adulthood I remember nights in which the agonizing screams of women who had just learned of their loved one's death invaded my sleep.

The first thing I noticed after escaping Iraq in 1992 was the incredible silence of the night. But for the friends and relatives I left behind, the nightmare continues, the suffering deepens. It is through my art that I work to bring them peace.

Saddam Hussein has been a curse to my homeland and has managed to remain in power, due in part to the support he has received from the United States government. The United States fears that a Shi 'ite or democratic government would replace Saddam Hussein. Because of politics and oil, innocent people are demonized and allowed to be tortured, starved, killed and disappeared. Iraqis are stereotyped as ignorant, and as terrorists who are both violent and maniacal. Through such images, Iraqis are cast as the enemy of humanity in order to make it easier for the US and western governments to gain their citizens' acceptance of the mass destruction they are being subjected to.

The US still wants to keep Saddam Hussein in power to maintain control of the Persian Gulf. By having Saddam, they can keep a huge military presence in the Gulf. The US benefits from the weapons sales to the region and profits from Saudi and Kuwaiti oil sales, as the embargo restricts the flow of Iraqi oil.

As a student in Baghdad's College of Arts & Sciences, I was arrested three times because of my art. There is little freedom under Saddam's government. When the regime invaded Kuwait, security agents visited my campus to conscript all men to participate in the occupation of Kuwait. My friends and I were the first to refuse, and our defiance encouraged many others to refuse. As a result, we were blacklisted. I had to go underground to escape imprisonment and possible execution. Many others were not so lucky and ended up either dead or in Kuwait.

During the first month of intensive bombing, I remained in hiding in Baghdad. I lived minute by minute, wondering if the next bomb would end my life. The constant terror numbed everyone. With every passing week, the war felt more and more like a war on the Iraqi people, not on Saddam.

After the bombing of the Al-Ameriyah civilian shelter in February, I left Baghdad. I returned to my home town of Al-Kufa, the gateway into the city of Najaf. Like the Vatican City is for Catholics, Najaf is a holy city for Shi'ite Muslims.

In March, after the cease-fire, an unprecedented people's uprising began. The following account by Sarah Graham-Brown captures it well: "The first signs of rebellion appeared on that last day of February in the predomiantly Sunni towns of Abu'l-Khasib and Zubair, south of Basra, near the Kuwaiti border. The uprising spread rapidly to Basra, where the destruction of bridges further north created a bottleneck, concentrating large numbers of retreating troops. Press reports on March 1 said people were in the streets of Basra shouting slogans against Saddam Hussein, while a tank fired shells through one of his large and ubiquitous public portraits. Huge traffice jams were created by military vehicles while government loyalists engaged in shoot-outs with rebels. By 7 March, most of the main towns in the south, including the Shi'i holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, were in revolt." (Sanctioning Saddam p154.)

The Iraqi people were convinced by George Bush that, if they rose up against Saddam Hussein, the United States would come to their aid. (Over short-wave radio, then President Bush called on the Iraqi people to rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein, "now is your opportunity.") Over a period of two to three weeks, people were able to gain control of their own cities. When the uprising started, we were able to get cars and ambulances and arrange for doctors to come to the hospital in Kufa. We brought injured people to the hospital to receive medical attention.

By the end of three weeks, the United States allowed Saddam Hussein to regain control of the cities. Saddam razed whole cities in south and north of the country, killing hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children. People were forced to leave their cities.

It was impossible to stay after the military took control. I joined my family in the countryside. My family and I stayed in an abandoned school with many other families facing very cold weather and no food. The only way we survived was to send our younger sisters and brothers to go door to door asking for bread. We burned the school desks to stay warm. We stayed there for about five days. Knowing that the military was approaching the countryside, and arresting everybody on their way, I realized that the only way I could survive was to leave, which was also the best for my family.

When I was attending the University of Baghdad, a member of the Al-Baath party came into my class to recruit us to join the military invasion of Kuwait, and I refused to go. This was the main reason that I had to leave. A relative came from Baghdad to the school in the countryside and told us that names had been posted at the University and my name was on that list.

Flying coffins: "Going East" paintings by Waffa Bilal. Many of Bilal's paintings deal with his experience of the gulf war.

Early the next morning, I began walking. I walked for days from one city to another, eventually ending up in Simawa. There I met a few people who were also leaving Iraq. We walked another three days to the US checkpoint, where we were told that there was a refugee camp in Safwan which was another seven hours by truck. We stayed outside the checkpoint, until the next morning when we were able to get a ride on a semi truck. When we arrived in Safwan, there was no camp, but we noticed that in the distance there was another camp. Next to the camp, was an abandoned gas station where we spent the night. After a few hours, we were attacked and arrested by Kuwaiti soldiers who wanted to execute us as Iraqi soldiers. After several terrifying hours before an ad hoc tribunal of Kuwaiti soldiers, we managed to convince them that we were students and that we had taken no part in the war.

We were released and stayed at that camp for forty days until the US pulled their troops out of that area. Desperately we protested, because we would have no protection from Saddam's soldiers. They waited a couple days until an agreement was made with Saudi Arabia to create a bigger refugee camp for everyone. They transported us by military airplanes to Rafah. I stayed there in the desert for almost two years until finally I was accepted by the United States as a refugee.

These experiences have not left me cynical nor drained me of hope for humanity. On the contrary, I am filled with a belief in the power of people to control their own destinies.