Tikrit Saddam's home town still bears legacy of dictator's regime

Perched on a cliff above P the Tigris River, Saddam Hussein's halfdestroyed palace looms over his home town of Tikrit, the deserted grounds bearing the traces of invaders come and gone.

- Simona Foltyn

American soldiers etched the date of their 2003 arrival into the sand-coloured walls. A decade later, Islamic State dug mass graves in the hilly soil and blew up part of the complex.

Far less obvious than the relics of Saddam's bygone regime are the enduring rifts left in this community, the centre of power during his rule, 20 years after the dictator's fall. The prospect of reconciliation over his crimes has been complicated by repeated waves of violence, reopening old wounds and perpetuating strife.

Saddam was executed in 2006, but some members of Tikrit's Sunni population feel they still unjustly bear the legacy of his brutality.

Iraq's successive governments continue to mete out punishment to those accused of links with Saddam's regime as part of a justice and accountability process that many believe is no longer useful, but few dare to challenge. Speaking out risks indictment under strict rules that ban the Ba'ath party and anything that could be perceived as its promotion.

Rifts deepened when IS took swaths of Iraq's north in 2014. The war drove a wedge through the community, pitting collaborators against liberators and irrevocably altering power structures. The Shia paramilitaries who helped defeat the jihadists alongside local tribal forces remained in Tikrit and still control strategic - and symbolic locations such as Saddam's palace and birthplace.

Meanwhile, Saddam's tribe, the Albu Nasir, live on the margins of society. On a recent winter evening, some gathered on the outskirts of Tikrit, hesitantly sharing stories of what they see as collective punishment for their links with the old regime and, more recently, their alleged support for IS and fiercely disputed role in a massacre of Shia cadets. They struggle to run in elections, obtain government positions and return to their lands.