KUWAIT, Aug 2 (Kuwait Times): Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, an event that is often quoted to be the main reason behind Kuwait slinking into regression in many aspects. The traumatic experience still haunts many Kuwaitis who are old enough to remember what had taken place. Despite the fact that twenty years have passed, the memory is still vivid. Kuwait lost many lives, and in the course of the war, quite a lot of the country's infrastructure was damaged. Someone who lived through the war and
lost a sibling, Zahra Al-Beloushi, says that the traumatic seven months are difficult to forget.

The 54-year-old retired teacher says, "It happened all of a sudden; the night before I was thinking of what I should cook for lunch the next day. Before the next day began at about 2 in the morning, I heard the news. I felt as if I had lost my balance. 'Saddam invaded Kuwait' sounded like a string of words that made no sense.

Zahra and her husband sat in the living room and listened to the radio, "I felt immobile; I knew I needed to pack what I can pack and go see my mother, but I couldn't move." Relatives called and agreed to meet in Zahra's parents house. Soon it was dawn, and Zahra took a few essentials; some clothes for her kids and they all headed to her parents' house. She spent about two weeks there before leaving to Bahrain. "We could see the shock on everyone's face as we were driving. People were agitated, taken by su
rprise.

Many disturbing stories were circulated during those days, Zahra recollected, "We heard stories about young men who were tortured and women who were raped. This only made our stay in Kuwait more unbearable," says Zahra. Zahra's daughters Shaimaa, Hussah and Nora were 13, 10 and 6 have recollections of the invasion.

The most painful aspect of the war was the fact that many people who were neighbors and friends were unable to trust one another, "We read articles and heard reports on radio channels about people from other Arab countries cheering Saddam for invading Kuwait. It was not easy for us to accept others from that point onwards," admits Zahra.

Returning to Kuwait after the invasion and during the Gulf War was more painful, says Zahra. "We saw our houses damaged, our cars wrecked, our valuables stolen, legal documents were lost, family albums were thrown away and it was very painful to think of all the people that were lost during the war. Two of my brothers were held hostage," she says. One of Zahra's brothers was released, but the other was found dead. He was badly mutilated.

Despite the fact that a generation was born after the war, Zahra says it is important that people learn about their history. She concludes, "It's very important that we learn about the reasons that set us back, and it is important that we learn to defeat them and re-build ourselves again, as difficult as that sounds.