Cairo – The boys’ deaths – scattered in the United States, Yemen, Turkey and elsewhere – had one thing in common: They hanged themselves after watching televised images of Saddam Hussein’s execution.
Officials and relatives say the children appeared to be mimicking the former dictator’s Dec. 30 hanging, shown on a sanitized Iraqi government tape and explicit clandestine videos that popped up on websites and some TV channels.
Experts say such graphic images can severely affect youngsters who do not understand the consequences of death and violence – especially because Hussein’s death received intense international attention.
“They see how it’s done, but they don’t think it’s horrific, and they’re more likely to imitate it,” said Hisham Ramy, an associate professor of psychiatry at Ain Shams University in Cairo.
A day after Hussein’s execution, a 10-year-old in the Houston suburb of Webster, Texas, hanged himself from a bunk bed after watching a news report on the execution. Police said Sergio Pelico tied a slipknot around his neck while on the bed but had not meant to kill himself.
“I don’t think he thought it was real,” said Julio Gustavo, Sergio’s uncle. “They showed them putting the noose around his (Hussein’s) neck and everything. Why show that on TV?”
In Turkey, Alisen Akti, 12, hanged himself Wednesday after watching TV footage. His father, Esat Akti, told a newspaper that his son had been affected by the televised images.
“After watching Saddam’s execution, he was constantly asking, ‘How was Saddam killed?’ and ‘Did he suffer?”‘ Akti was quoted as saying. “These television images are responsible for my son’s death.”
A 9-year-old from eastern Pak istan died hours after Hussein when he also mimicked the execution, local police official Sultan Ahmed Chaudhry said.
In Yemen, at least two young boys died and another was injured in apparent imitations of Hussein’s hanging.
And in Saudi Arabia, Sultan Abdullah al-Shemmeri, 12, was found hanging from a door with a rope around his neck, the newspaper Okaz reported.
Ramy, the professor in Egypt, said children are prone to imitating violence they encounter on television, on the Internet and in movies, but usually they act out against another person.
But Jasem Hajia, a child psychologist in Kuwait City, cautioned against placing all the blame on video images. “This is extreme, and I think there were physiological disorders as well with the children,” Hajia said.
