Sunday, November 05, 2006

 

Reactions to Saddam's verdict

For many Iraqis, the verdicts represented a moment of triumph and catharsis after decades of suffering under Mr. Hussein’s tyrannical rule. Spontaneous celebrations broke out across Iraq in spite of an around-the-clock curfew imposed on the capital and other regions. Pistols and assault rifles were fired into the air across the capital and elsewhere in a common gesture of celebration. People flooded the streets of Sadr City, a Shiite bastion of Baghdad, whooping and dancing and sounding car horns. Even some Shiite police officers joined in the celebratory gunfire. Sadr's followers did not thank Maliki's government for the verdict, but instead hailed their firebrand leader, chanting: "The one who betrayed the sayyid (Sadr) will be executed, just as the sayyid said he would be executed."
But in some predominantly Sunni Arab areas, the mood was one of anger and resentment and talk of conspiracy was rife. Many Sunnis accused foreign powers, in particular the United States, of intervening in the verdict. But there seemed to be some disagreement as to who was Washington's main accomplice in the alleged manipulation. "The sentence was pre-prepared in Washington and Tel Aviv," spat Tikrit civil servant Qusay Addai, bitterly. But in Samarra, bank clerk Shamil Ahmed fingered Israel's most bitter foe. "The trial was not just and clean. The sentence on Saddam is an American and Iranian comedy implemented by the government," he declared. Sheikh Abdel-Rahman Munshid al-Asi, a leader of the powerful Sunni Al-Obeidi tribe, branded the verdict "a crime against Iraq, its future and history". "The Iraqi government and its constituent parties will be held responsible for what will happen to Iraq," he warned. "The risks are catastrophic." "With our souls and our blood we redeem you, Saddam. Death to traitors and spies. Damn Bush and his agents. Yes, yes to the resistance. No option but to get rid of the occupier," chanted a crowd in Hawija, west of Kirkuk. Many Sunni Arabs criticized the verdicts as the product of a political charade designed to satisfy the political agendas of the Shiite-led Iraqi government and the Bush Administration.
In the northern cities of Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region, which had long resisted Saddam's rule and suffered greatly from attacks by his armed forces, people supported the verdict but asked for it not to be carried out quickly. Rights activist Berwa Ali spoke for many when she said the hanging should be put on hold until after Saddam's second trial -- for genocide against the Kurds during the notorious 1988 Anfal campaign. Iraq's Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, an opponent of Saddam but also of the death penalty, refused to comment until the appeals procedure is complete, to avoid giving the impression of trying to influence the case.
Immediately following the verdicts, fighting broke out between gunmen and the Iraqi Army in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya in northeastern Baghdad, according to an Interior Ministry official. American forces swarmed the district, however, suppressing the violence, the official reported. Fighting also erupted between supporters of Mr. Hussein and American troops near Bayji, north of Tikrit, Mr. Hussein’s birthplace and a bastion of support for the Sunni-led insurgency, according to witnesses there.
Mr. Maliki said that with the Saddam Hussein “era” now past, the door was “wide open for all to participate in the political process through reconciliation, which has been endorsed by the Iraqi people,” according to translation provided by CNN during the broadcast. The American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, hailed the verdicts as "an important milestone in the building of a free society" in Iraq.
During the course of the trial, three defense lawyers were killed by gunmen and the original chief judge resigned in protest over governmental interference. International legal experts and human rights observers have questioned the impartiality of the trial court, which was created to try top leaders of the ousted government during the 15-month period of formal American occupation following the invasion in the spring of 2003. Richard Dicker, director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement today. "Unfortunately, we believe the serious shortcomings in the fairness of the proceedings undermined the legitimacy and credibility of the trial." Amnesty International questioned the fairness of the trial, and international legal experts said Saddam should be kept alive long enough to answer for other atrocities. Only then, they said, will Iraqis brutalized by years of his despotic rule see true justice done.
Critics accused President Bush of deliberately arranging the timing of the sentence, handed down two days before pivotal midterm elections in which Democrats are fighting to regain control of Congress. The White House praised the Iraqi judiciary for its independence and denied that the Bush administration had been "scheming" to arrange a pre-election verdict. Many European nations voiced their opposition to the death penalty, including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, and a leading Italian opposition figure called on the continent to press for Saddam's sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.
In Pakistan, the opposition religious coalition claimed that American forces have caused more deaths in Iraq in the past 3 1/2 years than Saddam did during his 23-year rule, and insisted Bush should stand trial for war crimes. Iran, a bitter opponent of both Iraq and the U.S., praised the death sentence and said it hoped that Saddam — denounced by one lawmaker as "a vampire" — still would be tried for other crimes. Key U.S. allies — including Britain and Australia — welcomed Sunday's verdict, which had been widely expected, and said Saddam got what he deserved for crimes against humanity committed during years of brutal dictatorship. France urged Iraqis to show restraint. In Russia, the Kremlin-allied head of the international affairs committee in the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, told Ekho Moskvy radio the sentence will deepen divisions in Iraq.





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