Iraq calls time on Saddam's sidekick
By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - Shortly before the Iraq war of 2003, deputy Iraqi prime minister
Tariq Aziz gave an interview to Britain's ITV, saying: "Do you expect me, after
all my history, to go to an American prison - to go to Guantanamo? I would
rather die!"
On April 24 of the same year, however, he willingly surrendered to occupying US
forces, four days before his 67th birthday. On Tuesday, after seven years in
solitary confinement, the 74-year-old former diplomat was sentenced to death by
the Iraqi Supreme Court, over the persecution of Islamic parties during his
long years in power with Saddam Hussein.
One of those parties, Da'wa, was indeed severely persecuted by Saddam's men
after it tried to kill Aziz while he visited Baghdad University, in April 1980.
Aziz barely survived the grenade attack
and he sent his men hunting left and right for Da'wa members. Many were
executed in revenge; others were sent either to long-term imprisonment or into
exile.
Today, Dawa's top man, Nuri al-Maliki, is at the helm of power in Iraq while
the judge who handed down Aziz's sentence, Mahmud Saleh al-Hasan, is a member
of Maliki's State of Law Coalition.
Revenge is not a new matter in Iraq, but what is surprising is that Aziz - a
Christian - will be hanged for killing Islamists. Many believed that Aziz's
religion, his friends in the international community and the fact that his
hands are not stained with blood like Saddam would have spared him the fate of
former colleagues who ended at the hangman's noose. These include Saddam's half
brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Takriti, vice president Taha Yassin
Ramadan, and Saddam himself.
The fact that he was recently sentenced to only 15 years in prison was
seemingly an assurance that Aziz would remain "sheltered" from execution at the
age of 74. Many believed that it would have been very difficult for the
post-Saddam leaders of Iraq to hang Aziz - a man who was given red-carpet
treatment at the Vatican in 2003 - even if they wanted to.
That would have sparked off too much tension within Iraq itself, especially
between Muslims and Christians, and vibrated strongly around the world. During
his 2007 Christmas mass, Emmanuel III Delly, the Patriarch of Babylon and
primate of the Chaldean Catholic Church, called for Aziz's release, making
government authorities in Baghdad very nervous.
Maliki today, four years into power and preparing himself for another round at
the premiership, apparently feels confident enough to take affirmative action
on something he has always dreamt of - revenge against Aziz. He knows that he
can sign off the death warrant and face little, or no, opposition. Had Aziz
been a Sunni or Kurd, for example, whose support is much needed for Maliki for
a 163-vote majority he needs in parliament, then hanging him would have been
very difficult.
Aziz was born Mikhael Yuhanna to a Christian Iraqi family on April 28, 1936. He
studied English at Baghdad University and started his career as a journalist,
joining the Ba'ath Party when it was still in the ranks of the Iraqi
opposition, in 1957.
He served as managing editor of its paper, al-Thawra, and rose to become a
member of the party's regional command in 1977. Shortly after Saddam came to
power in the summer of 1979, Aziz was made deputy prime minister, a post he
held until the war of 2003.
During the 24 years that Saddam was in power, Aziz always stood as his
right-hand man, confident and the international face of Iraq, especially after
1990. In 1983-1991, he served as foreign minister, a tenure that included the
infamous 1990 occupation of Kuwait, followed by the second Gulf War.
In January 1991, he met US secretary of state James Baker at a Geneva
conference in a bid to hammer out a solution to the complex situation in the
Arab Gulf and in 2003 was granted an audience with Pope John Paul II at the
Vatican, where he pledged to cooperate with the international community, one
month prior to the US invasion of Iraq.
Last year, a court in Baghdad convicted him of involvement in the execution of
42 merchants in 1992 on charges of manipulating bread prices in Baghdad, a
crime and punishment both common during the Saddam era. Until curtain fall, he
remained committed to Saddam, refusing to admit to any wrong, refusing to
renege on any of his history, and refusing to apologize.
Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.
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