Thursday, January 04, 2007
Al-Rubaie denies improper behaviour at Saddam's execution
Politics
The Iraqi national security adviser has denied accusations that Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president, was humiliated in his final moments, contrary to what a leaked video of his execution showed. The denial came as two guards were detained on suspicion of secretly filming the execution and then distributing it on the internet. Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, asked in an interview on CNN, said: "Where was the humiliation? The shouting of the crowd?"
He insisted that there was nothing improper in executioners and officials dancing around Saddam's body after he had been killed, saying it was Iraqi tradition. "This is the tradition of the Iraqis - when they do something, they dance around the body and they express their feelings," al-Rubaie said. "Basically they were doing their congregational prayers and supplications, and they mentioned at the end of their supplication the name of Muqtada," he said.
"I have no sympathy for Saddam, but his life is not worth the lives of innocents that die daily in Baghdad. And [Saddam] replied to them. I can't see where is the humiliation, to be quite honest. Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada is not a dirty word, not an obscene word, they were not cursing."
He insisted that there was nothing improper in executioners and officials dancing around Saddam's body after he had been killed, saying it was Iraqi tradition. "This is the tradition of the Iraqis - when they do something, they dance around the body and they express their feelings," al-Rubaie said. "Basically they were doing their congregational prayers and supplications, and they mentioned at the end of their supplication the name of Muqtada," he said.
"I have no sympathy for Saddam, but his life is not worth the lives of innocents that die daily in Baghdad. And [Saddam] replied to them. I can't see where is the humiliation, to be quite honest. Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada is not a dirty word, not an obscene word, they were not cursing."
