- BAGHDAD (IPS) - Former dictator
Saddam Hussein is due to be executed next month in a move that could bring
more instability in a increasingly violent and chaotic occupation.
-
- The execution is to follow a decision by a court of appeal
Dec. 26 to uphold the death sentence for Saddam. Under present Iraqi law,
execution must be carried out within 30 days of confirmation of the order.
-
- Chief judge Aref Shahin said following confirmation of
the death sentence: "From tomorrow, any day could be the day of implementation."
-
- Saddam is also in the midst of another trial over charges
of genocide and other crimes during a 1987-1988 military crackdown on Kurds
in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation.
-
- That trial has been adjourned until Jan. 8. Saddam's
co-defendants in that case are likely to face trial if he is executed.
-
- Saddam was convicted last month for ordering the killing
of 148 Shias in Dujail town in 1982 in revenge for an assassination attempt
against him. He was sentenced to death by hanging.
-
- The completion of the nine-month trial that saw 39 court
sessions, through which three defence lawyers and a witness were murdered,
will most likely inflame Iraq's political divide further.
-
- Hashim al-Ubaydi's son was sentenced to death by a 'revolution
court' of the Saddam regime. But he is not pleased to see that Saddam
Hussein will be executed in the present circumstances.
-
- "I was an opponent of Saddam and his policies, but
I support putting him through a real national court away from occupation
influence. I cannot forgive or forget that my son was executed, but as
an Iraqi nationalist I cannot accept to see the president of my country
put to trial in such a ridiculous way by invaders and their tails."
-
- Many Iraqi leaders say the timing of the trial and execution
will enlarge the cracks between already divided Iraqis.
-
- The Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), the leading
Sunni group, whose members were listed on Saddam's most wanted list prior
to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation, has expressed deep concern about
the consequences of an execution.
-
- AMS secretary-general Dr. Harith al-Dhari rejects suggestions
that Saddam was a leader of Sunnis. He says 35 of the 55 most wanted persons
by U.S. occupation authorities following the invasion were Shias.
-
- Confirmation of the verdict has given rise to celebrations
as well.
-
- Some say the execution should be made a festive occasion.
"Saddam must be executed at the first day of Eid (the Muslim Holiday),"
a leader of the Shia Sadr Movement told reporters. "We demand live
broadcast of the execution."
-
- Others will not be celebrating even within Kurdistan.
"I hate Saddam and always wished him the death he deserved for his
attitude against my Kurdish nation," Sardar Herki from Sulaymaniya
in northern Iraq told IPS on phone. "I still wish him death -- but
together with his successors who killed half the population of Iraq and
arrested the other half."
-
- Compared with the present scenario, many Iraqis have
begun to see the Saddam days as a "golden time", a political
science teacher told IPS. A report in the medical journal Lancet says
more than 655,000 Iraqis have died unnaturally as a result of the occupation.
-
- "Iraqis would have not objected so much if the situation
had been improved by Saddam's executors," the teacher said. "His
time was certainly not a golden time, but Iraqis felt proud of his policies
against Iranian and American arrogance and greed. He managed to feed his
people and provide them with security and basic services despite all the
wars they fought, and the UN sanctions against Iraq."
-
- The defence team has objected to the verdict, and continues
to campaign against it.
-
- "The whole court procedures were illegal right from
the beginning," Khalil al-Dulaimy, chief of Saddam's defence team
told reporters in Baghdad. "Mr. President Saddam Hussein is a prisoner
of war and he should not be handed over to his opponents by international
law, and the international community must press the U.S. authorities not
to do so."
-
- International human rights organisations are asking for
suspension of the death sentence, while arguing that Saddam was denied
a fair trial. Human Rights Watch has reported that the trail was marred
by political interference.
-
- In a statement that seems to warn of impending violence
and increasing political divide, the Ba'ath Party, formerly led by Saddam,
has threatened it would target U.S. interests anywhere if he was executed.
-
- "Our party warns again of the consequences of executing
Mr. President and his comrades," said a statement that appeared on
a website known to represent the party. "The Ba'ath and the resistance
are determined to retaliate, with all means and everywhere, to harm America
and its interests if it commits this crime."
-
-
- (c)2006 Dahr Jamail. All images, photos, photography
and text are protected by United States and international copyright law.
If you would like to reprint Dahr's Dispatches on the web, you need to
include this copyright notice and a prominent link to the http:// DahrJamailIraq.com
website. Website by photographer Jeff Pflueger's Photography Media http://jeffpflueger.com
. Any other use of images, photography, photos and text including, but
not limited to, reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing
requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free to forward
Dahr's dispatches via email.
-
- More writing, commentary, photography, pictures and images
at http://dahrjamailiraq.com
|
