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by Dahr Jamail and Ali
al-Fadhily
Published on Friday,
December 29, 2006 by the Inter Press Service
Former dictator Saddam
Hussein is due to be executed soon in a move that could bring more
instability in an increasingly violent and chaotic occupation.
The execution is to follow a decision by a court of
appeal Dec. 26 to uphold the death sentence for Saddam. Under present
Iraqi law, execution must be carried out within 30 days of confirmation
of the order.
Chief judge Aref Shahin
said following confirmation of the death sentence: "From tomorrow, any
day could be the day of implementation."
Saddam is also in the
midst of another trial over charges of genocide and other crimes during
a 1987-1988 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated
180,000 Kurds died during the operation.
That trial has been
adjourned until Jan. 8. Saddam's co-defendants in that case are likely
to face trial if he is executed.
Saddam was convicted
last month for ordering the killing of 148 Shias in Dujail town in 1982
in revenge for an assassination attempt against him. He was sentenced to
death by hanging.
The completion of the
nine-month trial that saw 39 court sessions, through which three defence
lawyers and a witness were murdered, will most likely inflame Iraq's
political divide further.
Hashim al-Ubaydi's son
was sentenced to death by a 'revolution court' of the Saddam regime. But
he is not pleased to see that Saddam Hussein will be executed in the
present circumstances.
"I was an opponent of
Saddam and his policies, but I support putting him through a real
national court away from occupation influence. I cannot forgive or
forget that my son was executed, but as an Iraqi nationalist I cannot
accept to see the president of my country put to trial in such a
ridiculous way by invaders and their tails."
Many Iraqi leaders say
the timing of the trial and execution will enlarge the cracks between
already divided Iraqis.
The Association of
Muslim Scholars (AMS), the leading Sunni group, whose members were
listed on Saddam's most wanted list prior to the U.S.-led invasion and
occupation, has expressed deep concern about the consequences of an
execution.
AMS secretary-general
Dr. Harith al-Dhari rejects suggestions that Saddam was a leader of
Sunnis. He says 35 of the 55 most wanted persons by U.S. occupation
authorities following the invasion were Shias.
Confirmation of the
verdict has given rise to celebrations as well.
Some say the execution
should be made a festive occasion. "Saddam must be executed at the first
day of Eid (the Muslim Holiday)," a leader of the Shia Sadr Movement
told reporters. "We demand live broadcast of the execution."
Others will not be
celebrating even within Kurdistan. "I hate Saddam and always wished him
the death he deserved for his attitude against my Kurdish nation,"
Sardar Herki from Sulaymaniya in northern Iraq told IPS on phone. "I
still wish him death -- but together with his successors who killed half
the population of Iraq and arrested the other half."
Compared with the
present scenario, many Iraqis have begun to see the Saddam days as a
"golden time", a political science teacher told IPS. A report in the
medical journal Lancet says more than 655,000 Iraqis have died
unnaturally as a result of the occupation.
"Iraqis would have not
objected so much if the situation had been improved by Saddam's
executors," the teacher said. "His time was certainly not a golden time,
but Iraqis felt proud of his policies against Iranian and American
arrogance and greed. He managed to feed his people and provide them with
security and basic services despite all the wars they fought, and the UN
sanctions against Iraq."
The defence team has
objected to the verdict, and continues to campaign against it.
"The whole court
procedures were illegal right from the beginning," Khalil al-Dulaimy,
chief of Saddam's defence team told reporters in Baghdad. "Mr. President
Saddam Hussein is a prisoner of war and he should not be handed over to
his opponents by international law, and the international community must
press the U.S. authorities not to do so."
International human
rights organisations are asking for suspension of the death sentence,
while arguing that Saddam was denied a fair trial. Human Rights Watch
has reported that the trail was marred by political interference.
In a statement that
seems to warn of impending violence and increasing political divide, the
Ba'ath Party, formerly led by Saddam, has threatened it would target
U.S. interests anywhere if he was executed.
"Our party warns again
of the consequences of executing Mr. President and his comrades," said a
statement that appeared on a website known to represent the party. "The
Ba'ath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means
and everywhere, to harm America and its interests if it commits this
crime."
Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter
Press Service
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