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Saddam: Now for justice to be
done
By Jim Lobe in Washington
and Kathleen Ridolfo in Prague
With former Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein in United States custody, the
issue of how the former dictator will be tried is
already up for debate as the administration of President
George W Bush and the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) are
apparently not entirely agreed on how to treat Saddam.
IGC member and rotating president for the month
of December, Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim, gave a press
conference with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio
from Madrid, telling reporters that DNA testing had
confirmed that Saddam had definitely been captured.
"This is a great day for humanity, not just for the
Iraqi people. This is a great day for all of us who are
lovers of peace, because this criminal has committed
atrocities against humanity and not just against the
Iraqi people," Abd al-Aziz said.
And Amar
al-Hakim, a senior member of the Shi'ite Supreme Council
for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, added: "We want
Saddam to get what he deserves. I believe he will be
sentenced to hundreds of death sentences at a fair trial
because he's responsible for all the massacres and
crimes in Iraq."
IGC members Adnan Pachachi,
Ahmad Chalabi, Muwaffaq al-Rubay'i and Adil Abd al-Mahdi
all gave a press conference to reporters in Baghdad,
saying that they had seen and spoken to Saddam.
Pachachi, former Iraqi foreign minister and now head of
the Iraqi Independent Democrats Movement, said that
Saddam looked tired and haggard, and that he was
unrepentant and defiant, telling the IGC members that he
had been a firm, but just ruler. "Our answer was that he
was an unjust ruler responsible for the death of
thousands of Iraqis," Pachachi said, adding that Saddam
did not "express any remorse". Adil Abd al-Mahdi said
that Saddam sounded "cynical" when speaking to the
council members.
Chalabi of the Iraqi National
Congress said that Saddam didn't feel the need to
apologize for his despotic rule over Iraq. Chalabi also
confirmed to reporters that the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) had a role in locating Saddam. "Kosrat
Rasul [head of the PUK's political bureau] had a role in
uncovering the hideout of Saddam," Chalabi said.
Muwaffaq al-Rubay'i confirmed that Saddam would be tried
for crimes against the Iraqi people. Asked whether the
trial would be public, Pachachi said, "Yes, definitely,
the trial will be public."
These sentiments were echoed by Michael Posner, executive director
of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights: "It's really
critical that it's done right," he said. "For those who
believe in international justice and accountability for
human rights crimes, the trial of Saddam Hussein is a
rare opportunity to test the system and make it work."
He said that it was very important that any
tribunal included international representation, a
recommendation about which both the US and the IGC have
been very unclear to date. Early indications suggest
that the administration of President George W Bush and
the IGC are themselves not entirely agreed on how to
treat Saddam, who was captured on Saturday afternoon by
hundreds of US troops at an underground hiding place in
a farm compound near Tikrit. Military commanders said he
had been taken to an undisclosed location which members
of the IGC said was within Iraq's borders.
One
IGC member, Dara Nuredin, reportedly said that Saddam
will be the first to be tried under a new law
establishing an Iraqi war crimes tribunal that was
released publicly only last week. Indeed, at a press
conference on Sunday evening, IGC members stressed that
a public trial was considered by them to be essential.
But US officials said they had not decided what
would be the ultimate disposition of their new prisoner
other than interrogating him on the whereabouts of other
fugitive government and Iraqi military officials and on
the fate of weapons of mass destruction which US forces
have been unable to find since last March's invasion.
Bush vowed in a brief televised statement on
Sunday afternoon that Saddam "will face the justice he
denied to millions", but did not address the issue
further. Asked about what he meant, White House
spokesman reportedly assured one news agency that
"Iraqis will be involved in that decision".
Saddam has long been considered one of the
world's worst abusers dating back to his Ba'ath Party's
seizure of power in Baghdad in 1968. While Saddam did
not assume the presidency until 1979, he acted
effectively as the head of intelligence in a regime
notorious for its brutality and repression.
HRW,
which received some 18 tonnes of internal intelligence
and military documents about Baghdad's repression of the
Kurds from activists after the US, Britain and France
declared the northern third of the country a "no-flight"
zone off-limits to Iraqi military forces after the Gulf
War in 1991, said on Sunday that Saddam could be
prosecuted for any number of crimes against humanity.
They listed Iraq's "genocidal" 1988 Anfal
campaign against the Kurds, which killed some 100,000
people, including several thousands from chemical
weapons. Chemical weapons were also deployed against
Iranian troops. They also cited the large-scale killing
of civilians after Saddam put down uprisings by Kurds in
the north and Shi'ites in the south in the immediate
wake of the first Gulf War, and the destruction and
repression of the so-called "Marsh Arabs" in
south-central Iraq.
They also noted that
Saddam's "Arabization" campaign in which tens of
thousands of mostly Kurdish people were forcibly
expelled from their homes also constituted a crime
against humanity.
HRW has warned against what it
called a "political show trial" of Saddam. "Saddam
Hussein's capture is a welcome development and it's
important that the Iraqi people feel ownership of his
trial," said HRW director Kenneth Roth. "But it's
equally important that the trial not be perceived as
vengeful justice."
HRW, as well as Amnesty
International, has criticized the IGC's new law. While
the law is generally consistent with international
standards, it lacks key provisions to ensure a fair
trial. The law, for example, does not ensure that guilt
must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt; nor does it
address how witnesses and victims will be protected.
Most important, it does not require that judges and
prosecutors have experience working on complex criminal
cases and cases involving serious human rights crimes;
nor does the law permit the appointment of non-Iraqi
prosecutors or investigative judges with appropriate
expertise.
After last-minute changes before the
law was released, one provision was introduced that
allowed for the possibility of appointing non-Iraqi
trial and appeals chamber judges with experience in such
cases, but only if the IGC deemed it necessary.
The
Bush administration, which has strongly opposed the
International Criminal Court, the world body established
earlier this year to try war crimes and crimes against
humanity, has shown an almost reflexive hostility to
virtually any United Nations role in preparing the law
or in any war crimes tribunal established for Iraq.
(OneWorld and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
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