BAGHDAD - For almost 20 years, Iraqi Rear Admiral Qais Abdel Hamid al-Anbagi told everybody the wounds that left him crippled were a result of the Iran-Iraq war.

But the bullets that punctured Anbagi's gut and tore apart his shoulder and knee didn't come from the barrel of an Iranian gun. They were fired by Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraqi intelligence.

Now Anbagi is breaking his silence and suing Barzan, who is already on trial with Saddam for the massacre of over 140 Shiites from the village of Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982 against the Iraqi leader.

That trial resumes on Monday.

"I want to be compensated, to get back what I've lost in my life, because I used to be normal, and now, I cannot even bring myself a cup of water," said an angry Anbagi.

"It has been real physical suffering for the past 18 years," he added.

Anbagi isn't alone in wanting retribution. In the basement of the building housing the Human Rights Organization of Iraq are piles and piles of more than 5,000 legal suits filed against members of the former regime, with complaints ranging from physical assault to detentions, property confiscations to executions.

The sheer number of cases probably means Anbagi will probably never get his day in court, said Abboud Hassan, an employee at the organization which processes the complaints.

"I heard they (the ministry of human rights) prefer cases of those executed and martyrs -- they have priority," he said after Anbagi submitted his file.

In his modest home, Anbagi still keeps his old admiral's uniform carefully pressed and hanging in the closet. Nearby a picture, taken before the incident, shows him in military uniform at the time of the 1980-88 war against Iran.

On September 18, 1987, Anbagi was out shopping for his son's birthday.

"I was going to get him a cake from Karada neighborhood, when a car roared up behind me honking. I wanted to give him space, but traffic was too heavy," he said.

He eventually pulled over and the car overtook him. But it stopped just a few yards up the road and a furious Barzan stepped out.

"He started cursing me in his Tikriti accent and I told him to behave, telling him: I'm an officer in the Iraqi army.

"He then said to me 'damn your father and his father and all the officers in the army.'" Then Barzan slapped him.

Perhaps because he was a powerful military man or simply because he wasn't used to this kind of treatment, Anbagi made the mistake of his life and struck back.

"I'm a man, and an Iraqi, I couldn't take it, so I slapped him back."

Barzan returned to his car to pick up a machine gun. Anbagi lunged for his own sidearm in the glove compartment, but was cut down by a burst of gunfire.

Two days later, he awoke in Al-Rashid military hospital, his body and career ruined.

At first he tried to contact the presidential palace and the intelligence services to obtain compensation. Each time they told him to drop the matter.

Finally he pushed a little too hard.

"They locked me up all night and the next day told me, we'll let you go because you are a good man and a good officer, but if anyone ever asks you about what happened to you, tell them you were disabled in the war," he said with tears in his voice.

"Believe me, I wouldn't have cared if I'd been wounded in the war, I would have said that is my destiny, but to be disabled by such low-life."

Anbagi is cared for by his wife of many years, who worked as a nurse during the war with Iran. She hopes her husband gets his day in court, just so he can put the whole experience behind him.

"We Iraqis must forget about the past and start a new day, there has been enough shedding of blood," she said. "We had enough from the war with Iran and invading Kuwait."

If found guilty of other crimes, Saddam and Barzan might be sentenced to death, before cases such as that of the former admiral ever get to court.

But his wife thinks the death penalty is too kind for the likes of Saddam.

"Execution is not really a big deal -- it won't do anything, it won't bring back what's gone," she said. "Saddam must be tried, but I don't want him to be sent to his death, but rather put in a cage for everyone to look at him."

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