Moayad’s liberation joy marred by capture of brother and father
Young boy captures touching moment of family reunion on his camera
This is the second in a series of articles on Professor Moayad H. Hussain, an art critic, internet webmaster, designer, writer and documentary filmmaker.
– Editor
confused by all that was going on around him till his father, a highranking officer in the Kuwaiti army got a warning from his friends that the Iraqi Mukhabarat were looking for him. The warning prompted him to leave Rabiya with his family and to move into the large house-hold of his father in law to Khaldya, a less dangerous district of Kuwait town where the Iraqi Mukhabarat were less vigilant. Later when the Iraqis invaded Failaka other relatives were forced to leave the island and join the family.
Living among so many adults in the house young Moayad felt protected and more relaxed. He wanted to capture on film what was going on in town, but his mother not only strictly prevented him, she also hid the camera for fear he would do it secretly, and he would get into trouble with the Iraqis and be taken away. However she could not prevent his elder brother from talking on the radio with a friend exchanging information.
Interrogation
On the eve of the Gulf War the Iraqi Mukhabarat was edgy and very alert to anything going on in town. Three days before the war broke out they stormed the house, blind-folded Moayad’s father and his brother and took them away to a place of interrogation. There they were beaten and after two days they were dispatched to some prisons near Baghdad. Moayad’s uncle tried to locate them but in vain.
The shock and grief of losing his father and his brother in such circumstances and seeing his mother crying strongly affected Moayad. In the household the situation became precarious when Saddam Hussein ordered the entire oil field to be set on fire along with the entire infrastructure of Kuwait economical life, including the water and electricity plants and the entire distribution network. With the water running low and no electricity in the house life became grim indeed!
Without telephone to contact their loved ones and too risky to drive around people became more tense, more worried and anxious, while uncertainty and the impending dangers of chemical warfare drove neighbors closer to one another for
Lidia Qattan
mutual solidarity.
When the news of an impending chemical warfare spread – around everyone took the precaution of sealing doors and windows with wet towels and make rudimentary charcoal masks to wear.
Finally, when Saddam Hussein realized he was losing the war, he ordered the kidnapping of every man, woman and child from the streets of towns, even from Mosques at the time of prayer and to be sent as hostages to Iraq. Obviously no one dared venture outdoors for fear of being kidnapped!
Ordeal
By then Moayad was becoming more restless and more impatient for the ordeal to end, he was very excited when the ground attack began and the frantic artillery shooting at every aircraft flying overhead was lighting the night sky creating a thrilling spectacle.
At the climax of the war the resistance got ready for the grand finale. The last days before the liberation seemed unbearably slow for Moayad and the people waiting to be set free. Though the heavy shelling of rockets made their house tremble, they were not afraid, even the spectrum of death didn’t seem to matter anymore; all they wanted was to be set free in one way or another.
On the night of the liberation the greater commotion and the rumbling of motorized vehicles in the distance held everyone in suspense, only those in the resistance knowing what was happening were ready to take action. Moayad’s uncle dug up guns he kept hidden in the courtyard and got ready with his companions to secure the area from any Iraqi soldier lagging behind in the hasty retreat.
Early on the morning of the liberation when his uncle came to the house spreading the news that Kuwait was free, Moayad greeted the moment in a mixture of feelings; thinking of his father and of his brother held captives in Iraq marred the joy and excitement he felt in that moment.
He was yet more chagrined when his grandmother and grandfather came to the house for a happy family reunion, but when they were told their son and grand-son were taken prisoners to Iraq, their lamenting filled the house.
During the war one of his cousins in the resistance was captured and executed, Moayad knew nothing of him till other relatives came to the house and brought the sad news. The exchange of such grim information shattered any feeling of happiness and relief from anxiety Moayad felt in the aftermath of the liberation.
His hope of seeing his father and his brother flared when he heard some groups of POWs coming home. Eagerly he went to meet them, but his heart sank in disappointment each time he discovered his people were not among them. Those POWs were the men, women and children kidnapped from the streets of town and held prisoners in Basra, which the Iraqi resistance in the south of Iraq was able to set free, before it was crushed by the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Disappointed that his father and his brother were not among them Moayad still hoped they would soon return, while with his camera he was capturing the expression on the faces on those men, women and children at the moment of reunion with their families.
To be continued