Kuwait House of National Memorial Museum
After dropping me off at the Kuwait House of National Memorial Museum, Assis, my taxi driver for the day, makes sure I see the Iraqi tank displayed outside.
Entering, I pay 1 KD and get a personal guide, Sakina. She starts by reeling off names of former sheikhs; the earliest ones are names on plaques, the later ones have their paintings displayed. Then follows a section devoted to the discovery of oil and the early days of prosperity.
While I wait for Sakina to get the new, modern, bi-lingual audio-system ready, I stroll through to the front yard; drawn by a model of a house being torpedoed. The name Saddam is painted on the torpedo. Flags of the nations that helped Kuwait in its hour of need, surround the monument.
The rest of the museum is about the Gulf War and its consequences. Which is what I came here to see.
The horrors of the war are told while I walk through a dark corridor. Models of houses, people, war planes, tanks are illuminated and timed with smoke and sound effects. Planes wiz by, bombs are dropped, houses set on fire, machine guns rattle, people shout. It all seems very realistic - and tells the story through Kuwaiti eyes.
It’s been nearly 20 years, so a quick recap: On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, claiming it’s really part of an Iraqi province, a part of the old Ottoman province of Basra. The Iraqi army came at night: thousands of soldiers and tanks. Kuwait city was air-bombed. Looting immediately began; they robbed banks and terrorised the Kuwaiti people who had been living so safely. Oil wells were set on fire, a total of 732 wells.
People fled to neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Some got lost in the desert and were never heard of again.
Women who were killed:
The invaders changed the names of Kuwait’s cities:
Barrels of oil were dumped in the gulf and Kuwaitis were taken as prisoners of war.
I ask Sakina what she remembers. ‘Not much,’ she says. ‘I was only a year old.’ Her father was taken prisoner and sent to Iraq. ‘But now I have my father,’ she hastens to add. He returned after a year.
Five days after the invasion, US troops were sent to Saudi Arabia, originally to protect Saudi oil fields. An international coalition to oppose Saddam Hussein was forged, comprising 34 countries. (Controversial for many of the coalition partners though, many thinking the USA already had too much influence in the area).
Based on not entirely truthful information (false satellite photos, false testimonies, examples of human rights abuses fabricated by a PR firm), the US Congress authorized using military force in January 1991. The USA was soon joined by the coalition partners (despite internal opposition in many of the countries) and the Gulf war was on.
After a proper showing of appreciation to the coalition forces (many contributing countries have their own section), the museum goes on to show Saddam Hussein’s atrocities in Northern Iraq, with very disturbing photos from torture centres at Iraqi police stations and young children killed by poisoned gas.
As a finale are photos of Saddam Hussein’s capture and incarceration. In one, his two sons lie on tables; blue sheets covering only the middle of their bleeding corpses. Accused of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, and various financial crimes, Udai and Qusay Hussein were probably bad news. Still, this photo bothers me a great deal. The brothers were killed during a US raid on their house. So was Qusay’s 14-year-old son Mustapha.
Tags: Al Kuwayt, Arabian Gulf, Blogsherpa, Gulf War, Iraq, Kuwait, Kuwait City, Middle East, National Memorial Museum, Persian Gulf, Saddam Hussein
