I Don't look back in Anger
by
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Sunday 3rd September 1990.
War was drawing close. According to the BBC,
An Iraqi officer had been set on fire by protesters. Meanwhile, the Ambassador for
I eventually fell asleep at about five in the morning, as my mind was doing overtime again. I woke at seven with awful stomach cramps and tossed and turned until eight thirty. I decided to get up and use the shower before everyone else did, thinking that it
would also help to ease my cramps. Before the shower, Chris and I went into the main room for a cup of tea, which was always left on the table in two flasks.
As usual, Chris accompanied me when I went to wash. I closed the door of the toilet next to the shower,
The one that was always overflowing with tissues and excrement to stop anyone using or looking over the top while I was showering.
I quickly undressed, nervous that one of the guards might come in. After showering, I dressed as fast as I could, still wet.
By now, there were ten armed guards, sitting at the security office that I had to pass each time I needed the shower or toilet.
Many of the Guards were not used to seeing European women, and generally had a low opinion of them, so it was always wise to cover up even when sleeping.
The stomach cramps continued and I started to menstruate. I desperately need tampons but again, improvised with tissue. Luckily, a lady had arrived and was sitting with the guards. I tried to explain my needs to her in poor Arabic, pointing to my stomach. Thankfully, I still had a tampon left from before, so I showed it to her. She looked baffled and then marched off to the doctor’s room. I followed her .A guard was sitting there, so the lady explained the situation to him and held up the tampon for him to see.
He was totally bewildered and embarrassed and suggested that we should wait for the doctor. I couldn’t believe it. I wished I’d never said anything! I went back for another cup of tea.
Cassim arrived. He had obviously been told that I needed something from the doctor.
“Are you ill?” he asked. It seemed as though the whole of the male population of
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About the Book
Preserved in it’s original diary form, Don’t Look Back in Anger is one woman’s true account of her experience as a human shield in Saddam Hussein’s desperate attempt’s to avoid a military response to his invasion of Kuwait in 1990. After a number of agonizingly tense days waiting in the hotel where Chris worked, first Chris and then Caroline were seized by the Iraqi forces and brought at gunpoint to Iraq, where they would spend the next few months being shuffled between military and chemical installations. Conditions were appalling, and all the hostages, who were from many different Western countries, suffered not just physically but also mentally as they were exposed to filth, disease, uncertainty and the daily fear of imminent execution. Years later, when hostilities returned to the Arab Gulf, where Caroline has made her home, the fear, and painful memories of that dreadful time returned to haunt her, and prompted her to revisit her diaries and present them in a book format: Don’t Look Back in Anger.
About the Author
Caroline Hughes Myers was born into an Irish family in the United Kingdom, where she grew up, completed her education and trained to be a nurse.
When the opportunity arose, Caroline seized the chance to make an exciting new start by moving to Kuwait in the late 1980s, to take up a managerial position in a prestigious department store. In Kuwait, she met her partner and future husband, Chris.
Caroline and Chris were seized, among thousands of other foreign nationals, when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. They were to become “human shields” in Saddam Hussein’s attempts to evade war. Throughout her ordeal, Caroline kept a daily record of events, recording her hopes, fears and dreams for the future. Fortunately, both she and Chris survived their period of captivity, and returned after some months to the United Kingdom where they were married.
Caroline and Chris currently reside in Doha, Qatar, with their daughter Candida, where Caroline is employed as the Advertising Manager for a women’s publication that is distributed across the Arab Gulf. She is also a very busy wife and mother and is active in local fundraising activities. This is her first book.