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• 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 261 • December 2006<br />
both in Iraq and abroad. It all<br />
happened as if Prime Minister<br />
Maliki wanted to fulfil his promise<br />
to finish with Saddam Hussein<br />
before the end of the year. His<br />
subordinates must have worked<br />
frantically to carry out, in record<br />
time, all the administrative<br />
formalities required and get round<br />
Presi<strong>de</strong>nt Jalal Talabani’s<br />
opposition to the <strong>de</strong>ath sentence.<br />
While consi<strong>de</strong>ring that they could<br />
not, in the place of the families of<br />
hundreds of thousands of victims,<br />
pardon Saddam Hussein, the<br />
Kurdish lea<strong>de</strong>rs would have liked<br />
the tyrant to be tried for his mass<br />
crimes and be sentenced to life<br />
imprisonment at the end of these<br />
trials.<br />
Finally, recalling the fear that the<br />
Baathists might kidnap hostages to<br />
secure the release of their lea<strong>de</strong>r,<br />
the prime Minister, supported by<br />
the other Shiite coalition partners<br />
<strong>de</strong>ci<strong>de</strong>d to speed up the execution<br />
process, without even taking into<br />
account the customary truce<br />
observed on the occasion of the<br />
Moslem Feast of the Sacrifice.<br />
His <strong>de</strong>cision, consi<strong>de</strong>red a proof of<br />
his <strong>de</strong>termination, was wi<strong>de</strong>ly<br />
approved by the Shiite population.<br />
The news of his hanging was<br />
greeted by joyful firing into the air<br />
at Najaf, a Shiite holy city, but with<br />
relative indifference in Baghdad.<br />
Here, the announcement of the exdictator’s<br />
<strong>de</strong>ath was only greeted<br />
by a few shots in the air in quarters<br />
that were essentially Shiite. The<br />
Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki,<br />
welcoming the “execution of that<br />
criminal Saddam”, launched an<br />
appeal for reconciliation directed<br />
at the old regime’s supporters<br />
whose “hands were not stained with<br />
blood”.<br />
The Presi<strong>de</strong>nt of Iraqi Kurdistan,<br />
Massud Barzani, took note of the<br />
hanging while recalling the<br />
importance of continuing the Anfal<br />
proceedings, in which the former<br />
presi<strong>de</strong>nt was being tried for<br />
genoci<strong>de</strong> against the Kurds. “We<br />
hope that the execution of Saddam<br />
Hussein will open a new chapter in<br />
Iraq’s history and that it will mark the<br />
end of the use of force and violence<br />
against civilians” <strong>de</strong>clared Massud<br />
Barzani, in a communiqué dated 30<br />
December. “It is important that this<br />
execution should not be an excuse for<br />
not revealing the extent of the crimes<br />
committed during the Halabja and<br />
Anfal operations, as well as the<br />
massacre of thousands of Kurds and of<br />
members of the Barzani clan”, the<br />
Presi<strong>de</strong>nt of autonomous<br />
Kurdistan nevertheless qualified.<br />
The Party for a Democratic Society<br />
(DTP) the principle pro-Kurdish<br />
organisation in Turkey, for its part,<br />
<strong>de</strong>nounced the execution. “Even<br />
though the Kurds suffered the most<br />
during his period in office (…)<br />
Saddam Hussein should not have been<br />
hanged”, consi<strong>de</strong>red Aysel Tugluk,<br />
DTP co-presi<strong>de</strong>nt, in a<br />
communiqué. Mrs. Tugluk pointed<br />
out that her party was opposed to<br />
capital punishment and consi<strong>de</strong>red<br />
that hanging the ex-dictator could<br />
produce the outcome of still further<br />
inflaming the situation ion Iraq, which<br />
is already torn apart by sectarian<br />
violence. “Saddam had already been<br />
sentenced in peoples’ awareness. This<br />
punishment is much more severe than<br />
the <strong>de</strong>ath sentence that we must<br />
reject”, she further stated.<br />
Immediately welcomed in<br />
Washington: the execution “will not<br />
put an end to the violence in Iraq, but<br />
it is an important stage in Iraq’s road<br />
to a <strong>de</strong>mocracy that can govern itself<br />
(…) and be an ally in the war against<br />
terrorism”, <strong>de</strong>clared the US<br />
Presi<strong>de</strong>nt George W. Bush in a<br />
communiqué. Saddam Hussein<br />
“has paid”, the British government<br />
consi<strong>de</strong>red, while still reaffirming<br />
its opposition to the <strong>de</strong>ath<br />
sentence, while the French Foreign<br />
Ministry “took note” of the<br />
execution and called on the Iraqis<br />
to “work towards reconciliation and<br />
national unity”. The Finnish<br />
presi<strong>de</strong>ncy of the European Union,<br />
states it has always been against<br />
capital punishment, consi<strong>de</strong>red<br />
that the execution “could also turn<br />
out to become the carrier of future<br />
divisions in Iraq”. The execution<br />
was also seen as a “new tragedy” in<br />
the Vatican, which is opposed to<br />
capital punishment, as well as the<br />
Council of Europe, that consi<strong>de</strong>rs<br />
that Iraq had missed an<br />
opportunity “to rejoin the civilised<br />
world”. The Russian Foreign<br />
Ministry regretted that<br />
international appeals for clemency<br />
had not been heard while the<br />
German Chancellor, Angela<br />
Merkel, stated that she “respected”<br />
the verdict, while recalling that<br />
Berlin was opposed to capital<br />
punishment.<br />
On 30 December, Iran welcomed<br />
the execution of Saddam Hussein,<br />
<strong>de</strong>scribed by Teheran as the “author<br />
of the most horrible crimes against<br />
humanity”. “With Saddam’s<br />
execution, the case of one of the worst<br />
criminal dictators has been closed”,<br />
commented the Iranian State<br />
Television service. Also <strong>de</strong>man<strong>de</strong>d<br />
that the Iraqi Criminal Court, set<br />
up to try Saddam Hussein,<br />
sentence him for crimes committed<br />
during the Iran-Iraq war, and in<br />
particular for the use of chemical<br />
weapons against Iranian troops. As<br />
soon as Saddam Hussein’s <strong>de</strong>ath<br />
was announced, <strong>de</strong>monstrations of<br />
joy took place in several parts of<br />
Teheran, but also in Khorramshahr,<br />
a port city on the Iraqi bor<strong>de</strong>rs,<br />
where scenes of popular rejoicing