Saddam's day in court draws nearer
By Charles Recknagel
Iraqi
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi might have jumped the gun by
saying that he expects the United States to hand over
Saddam Hussein to his government, along with hundreds of
other prisoners, during the next two weeks in the run-up
to the June 30 handover of sovereignty.
"The
current detainees, without exception, will all be handed
to the Iraqi authority. The handover will take place
within the next two weeks. Saddam and the others will be
handed over to the Iraqis, to the government," Allawi
said. "The trial [of Saddam] will start as soon as
possible. The handover will happen in the most
transparent way. Saddam will be handed over to the Iraqi
government."
The announcement set off intense
speculation as to how Saddam's transfer to Iraqi control
will take place. It is believed Saddam is now being kept
under tight security by US forces at the American
regional military base in Qatar.
But US
President George W Bush has not been as definite.
Speaking after Allawi's comments were published, he made
it clear that he was in no hurry to hand over Saddam to
the uncertain security overseen by an interim Iraqi
government.
Bush said it was in everyone's best
interests to ensure the former Iraqi dictator faced
justice for atrocities committed against his citizens
and doesn't somehow avoid trial as Washington passes
sovereignty to Iraqis in two weeks. "I just want to make
sure that when sovereignty is transferred, Saddam
Hussein ... stays in jail," Bush said after a White
House meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Bush, however, was more optimistic about the
future of Muqtada al-Sadr, whom US military authorities
have wanted "dead or alive" since his militia began
assaults against US forces in Najaf earlier this year.
If the new Iraqi regime wanted to bring him into the
political process, that was their prerogative, Bush
said.
And Muqtada's rise in fortunes seemed more
likely on Wednesday when he told all members of his
Mahdi Army militia who were not from Najaf to leave the
holy city. Muqtada issued a statement calling on his
militiamen to go home to "do their duty". Muqtada agreed
to a truce this month after weeks of fighting with
US-led forces in Najaf and Kerbala.
Shi'ite
clerics helped broker the truce to end the fighting,
appalled at damage to holy shrines in the city.
Muqtadar's forces have been keeping a low profile in
Najaf since the deal, under which US forces also agreed
to pull back from the town and turn security over to
Iraqi police.
Back to Saddam, most of the
details of what might happen to him in the coming two
weeks remain highly uncertain. One reason is that US
officials are providing varying information as reporters
press them to confirm Allawi's statement. One
unidentified US military official said he expected US
forces to continue to hold Saddam and thousands of other
prisoners, even after the Iraqi government assumes
sovereignty on June 30.
In still another version
of what might happen, a US military spokesman in Baghdad
said that the US would release or turn over as many as
1,400 detainees to the Iraqi government by the end of
this month. But Colonel Barry Johnson said US forces
would continue to hold between 4,000 and 5,000 other
prisoners deemed a threat to the coalition. Johnson did
not mention any specific plans regarding Saddam.
On Tuesday, the Iraqi government repeated its
position that Saddam would soon be its responsibility.
President Ghazi Ajil al-Yawir told reporters in Baghdad
that Washington was "keen" to hand over the former
president. "Even President Bush himself was asking me
when are we going to be able to be handed the
ex-president, Saddam Hussein. The United states is very
keen to hand over the ex-president to the Iraqi
authorities," al-Yawir said.
But al-Yawir
appeared to leave open the question of whether any
transfer of Saddam to Iraqi authority would see him
physically moved, or whether he might continue to be
held outside the country - at least temporarily - due to
security concerns.
"We must first make sure that
we can maintain protection for [Saddam's] life until he
goes on trial. We must make sure that the trial goes as
a legal process. He has his own fair chance of defense,
and that the government has its own chance in expressing
charges [against] him," al-Yawir said.
Saddam is
widely expected to face Iraqi judges only after the
government puts lesser figures among some 100 former
regime officials on trial. He is likely to be charged
with crimes against humanity inflicted on his own
people, including the use of chemical weapons against
Iraqi Kurds in the village of Halabjah in 1988 and the
massacre of Iraqi Shi'ites following the Gulf War of
1991.
Saddam currently has the status of a
prisoner of war under US custody. According to
international law, he must be charged before June 30 -
the date the US-led occupation of Iraq formally ends -
or be set free.
The chief spokeswoman of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in
Geneva said that such charges had not yet been filed.
Antonella Notari said that charging Saddam would give
the Iraqi government the right to try the former leader
because "a prisoner of war who is suspected of having
committed a crime must not just be released ... he must
be prosecuted, tried, through a legal proceeding."
To take custody of hundreds of other detainees
along with Saddam, Allawi's government will also have to
file charges against them before June 30.
The
ICRC's spokeswoman in Baghdad, Nada Doumani, said that
not only the some 50 prisoners still held by the
coalition as prisoners of war, but also the thousands
more detained as possible security threats are entitled
under the Geneva Conventions to be released at the end
of the occupation unless charged with crimes.
Doumani said the exact legal status of any
detainees still held by coalition forces after June 30
would have to be determined by an agreement between the
coalition forces and the sovereign Iraqi government.
Salem Chalabi, the Iraqi official tasked with
filing charges against high-profile members of the
former regime, said that charges against them would be
filed soon. He also said secure facilities for detaining
Saddam were being readied inside Iraq. Chalabi said:
"We're putting it together. We should have it together
very shortly."
US and Iraqi officials have
repeatedly said they consider it essential to try Saddam
in Iraq to demonstrate that the country is building a
new order that breaks with the record of the former
regime.
Shortly after Saddam's capture by US
forces in December, Bush said Washington planned to work
closely with Iraqi authorities in determining how he
would be tried. "We will work with the Iraqis to develop
a way to try him that will stand international scrutiny
- I guess that's the best way to put it. The Iraqis need
to be very much involved," Bush said. "They were the
people that were brutalized by this man."
A
member of the former US-appointed Iraqi Governing
Council, Muwafaq al-Rubay'i, said at the time that there
was no question Saddam would be tried in his own
country. "He will be tried in Iraq, and he will be
sentenced in Iraq, and he will serve a sentence in
Iraq," said al-Rubay'i.
In preparation for
trying Saddam, Iraq's Special Tribunal for Crimes
Against Humanity is appointing 50 investigators to
prepare the state's case against him. The investigators
themselves live under constant fear for their security.
One of them already has been assassinated in Najaf while
collecting material there.
It remains unclear
whether Saddam's trial will be internationally monitored
to ensure fairness. UN secretary general Kofi Annan said
in December that any court that tries Saddam "has to
meet basic international norms and standards". He said
the world body stands ready to help, if asked.
Copyright (c) 2004, RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted
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