Even in Dujail, scene of Saddam's crimes, some mourn

DUJAIL, Iraq, Jan 1 (Reuters) They covered their faces for fear of reprisals but they came nonetheless to mourn Saddam Hussein -- dozens of Shi'ites from Dujail, the scene of the crimes for which the former president was executed.

In a sign of the complexities of the sectarian, tribal and political loyalties in Iraq, it was not only Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs who mourned his execution for killing 148 Shi'ites from Dujail.

At a condolence hall on the outskirts of the town, prepared for the occasion TOday, several dozen men from Dujail came to visit.

As well as those killed after a failed 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in Dujail, hundreds of people in the town were arrested, tortured and deported and farmlands in the area were razed.

Yet Saddam had his supporters there, not least the four former Baath party officials from Dujail who were on trial with him.

Between 50 and 100 men visited Dujail's condolence hall, the site marked by a banner reading: ''The Al-Khazraj tribes in Dujail proclaim the death of the nation's hero, the martyr Saddam Hussein.'' ''We've been told to cover our faces with masks for fear of betrayal and the traitors in Iran and their militias in Baghdad,'' said one of the mourners who asked to be identified only by the informal name Abu Hayder (Father of Hayder).

''We in the Khazraj tribe are carrying out this humanitarian duty towards the nation's leader, the martyr and hero Saddam Hussein,'' he said, as mourners sat around the edge of the hall and verses from the Koran and prayers for the dead were recited.

BITTERNESS While many Shi'ites remember with bitterness the oppression they suffered under Saddam, others enjoyed privileges as members of his Baath party. Some tribes have both Shi'ite and Sunni Arab members, but the mourners in Dujail said they were Shi'ites.

Shi'ites are far from a united political force -- various factions have jostled for supremacy for years. And as Arabs, many Iraqi Shi'ites are deeply suspicious of non-Arab, neighbouring Iran, which harboured exiled groups in Saddam's time and still provides support for favoured factions.

With sectarian violence threatening to pitch Iraq into civil war, some Iraqis are nostalgic for the relative stability Saddam imposed compared to the chaos since US President George W Bush ordered the March 2003 invasion.

''We condemn the criminal acts of little Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair and their agents in Iraq and the mercenaries from Iran,'' Abu Hayder said, employing a term of derision for the US president coined by Saddam to distinguish him from his father, the first President George Bush.

Though more subdued, the scenes in Dujail echoed those in Awja, near Tikrit, where mourners flocked to see Saddam's grave.

Outside the hall, a handful of young men with guns shouted slogans in support of Saddam and against the Americans. ''We will not obey you, Bush,'' said one man, his face shrouded in black.

Reuters LL VP0010