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• 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 261 • December 2006 both in Iraq and abroad. It all happened as if Prime Minister Maliki wanted to fulfil his promise to finish with Saddam Hussein before the end of the year. His subordinates must have worked frantically to carry out, in record time, all the administrative formalities required and get round President Jalal Talabani’s opposition to the death sentence. While considering that they could not, in the place of the families of hundreds of thousands of victims, pardon Saddam Hussein, the Kurdish leaders would have liked the tyrant to be tried for his mass crimes and be sentenced to life imprisonment at the end of these trials. Finally, recalling the fear that the Baathists might kidnap hostages to secure the release of their leader, the prime Minister, supported by the other Shiite coalition partners decided to speed up the execution process, without even taking into account the customary truce observed on the occasion of the Moslem Feast of the Sacrifice. His decision, considered a proof of his determination, was widely approved by the Shiite population. The news of his hanging was greeted by joyful firing into the air at Najaf, a Shiite holy city, but with relative indifference in Baghdad. Here, the announcement of the exdictator’s death was only greeted by a few shots in the air in quarters that were essentially Shiite. The Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, welcoming the “execution of that criminal Saddam”, launched an appeal for reconciliation directed at the old regime’s supporters whose “hands were not stained with blood”. The President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massud Barzani, took note of the hanging while recalling the importance of continuing the Anfal proceedings, in which the former president was being tried for genocide against the Kurds. “We hope that the execution of Saddam Hussein will open a new chapter in Iraq’s history and that it will mark the end of the use of force and violence against civilians” declared Massud Barzani, in a communiqué dated 30 December. “It is important that this execution should not be an excuse for not revealing the extent of the crimes committed during the Halabja and Anfal operations, as well as the massacre of thousands of Kurds and of members of the Barzani clan”, the President of autonomous Kurdistan nevertheless qualified. The Party for a Democratic Society (DTP) the principle pro-Kurdish organisation in Turkey, for its part, denounced the execution. “Even though the Kurds suffered the most during his period in office (…) Saddam Hussein should not have been hanged”, considered Aysel Tugluk, DTP co-president, in a communiqué. Mrs. Tugluk pointed out that her party was opposed to capital punishment and considered that hanging the ex-dictator could produce the outcome of still further inflaming the situation ion Iraq, which is already torn apart by sectarian violence. “Saddam had already been sentenced in peoples’ awareness. This punishment is much more severe than the death sentence that we must reject”, she further stated. Immediately welcomed in Washington: the execution “will not put an end to the violence in Iraq, but it is an important stage in Iraq’s road to a democracy that can govern itself (…) and be an ally in the war against terrorism”, declared the US President George W. Bush in a communiqué. Saddam Hussein “has paid”, the British government considered, while still reaffirming its opposition to the death sentence, while the French Foreign Ministry “took note” of the execution and called on the Iraqis to “work towards reconciliation and national unity”. The Finnish presidency of the European Union, states it has always been against capital punishment, considered that the execution “could also turn out to become the carrier of future divisions in Iraq”. The execution was also seen as a “new tragedy” in the Vatican, which is opposed to capital punishment, as well as the Council of Europe, that considers that Iraq had missed an opportunity “to rejoin the civilised world”. The Russian Foreign Ministry regretted that international appeals for clemency had not been heard while the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, stated that she “respected” the verdict, while recalling that Berlin was opposed to capital punishment. On 30 December, Iran welcomed the execution of Saddam Hussein, described by Teheran as the “author of the most horrible crimes against humanity”. “With Saddam’s execution, the case of one of the worst criminal dictators has been closed”, commented the Iranian State Television service. Also demanded that the Iraqi Criminal Court, set up to try Saddam Hussein, sentence him for crimes committed during the Iran-Iraq war, and in particular for the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops. As soon as Saddam Hussein’s death was announced, demonstrations of joy took place in several parts of Teheran, but also in Khorramshahr, a port city on the Iraqi borders, where scenes of popular rejoicing
n° 261 • December 2006 Information and liaison bulletin • 3• were reported by official Iranian media. Khorramshahr had been occupied by Iraqi forces at the beginning of the invasion of Iran in 1980. The Iranian Army liberated the city during a decisive battle in May 1921. In the Arab countries, reactions were mainly official and token. The hanging of Saddam Hussein, taking place, as it did, on the first day of the Moslem Feast of the Sacrifice caused “surprise and consternation” according to the SPA news agency, that reflects the official views of the Saudi kingdom. Its Jordanian neighbour expressed the hope that it would have no negative effects on the country. In Gaza the death of Saddam Hussein was described as a “political assassination” by the Islamic movement Hamas. Finally, several thousands of demonstrators came out on the streets to protest against this execution in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Human Rights defence organisations regretted the execution. “Saddam Hussein was responsible for many terrible violations of human rights. However, these acts, however brutal they may be, cannot justify his execution — a cruel and inhuman punishment”, declared Human Rights Watch, for its part. In the view of Amnesty International, this was “a missed opportunity” for obliging the former dictator to face up to his crimes. On 19 October 2005, at the opening of his first trial for crimes against humanity, for the deaths of 148 inhabitants of the village of Dubail after an attempted assassination, Saddam had taken advantage of the platform provided by the court. In July he stated that, in the event of his being sentenced to death, he should, as an officer, be shot not hanged. In the course of his trial, he alternately played the tune of Arab nationalism, Islam and Iraqi patriotism. He presented himself as a pious Moslem, never going anywhere without his copy of the Qoran. Since last July, Saddam Hussein has been on trial in a second charge in which he was accused of genocide against the Kurds in the context of the Anfal campaign carried out during 1987 and 1988, in the course of which over 180,000 people were killed in mass executions or chemical bombardments. The Anfal trial, in which six other people are being charged, including one of his cousins, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” will continue, but all charges against Saddam Hussein are extinguished by his death under Iraqi law. The chemical attack carried out by the Iraqi Air Force in 1988 on Halabja, where some 5,000 people were killed in a few minutes and some 10,000 others injured, as well as the execution, in 1983, of some 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe, are two other separate cases covering the massacre of Kurds. As far as the Anfal trial is concerned, Mr. Badih Aref Ezzat, the lawyer representing Tareq Aziz, Saddam Hussein’s former Deputy Prime Minister, announced that this wished to give evidence in the Anfal case before Saddam Hussein’s execution. Tareq Aziz “has asked to be able to give evidence in the Anfal case before Saddam Hussein’s death sentence was carried out — and this was also Saddam Hussein’s wish”, he declared, adding that “Mr. Aziz told me that he had important information that would provoke great embarrassment inside and outside” Iraq, without giving any details. Tareq Aziz, who was Saddam Hussein’s spokesman on the international stage, surrendered to American troops in April 2003. He has, since then, been detained by the Americans and his family constantly calls for his release because of the deterioration in his state of health. Another disturbing fact — a document presented at Saddam Hussein’s trial in which the Iraqi officers were ordered to “cooperate with the Turkish party in accordance with the agreement signed with them for hunting down refugees” was handed to the Iraqi High Criminal Court on 21 December. This document was presented by the Iraqi Prosecution as one of the proofs that Saddam Hussein had, indeed, given the order to eliminate 182,000 Kurds. The Turkish authorities immediately went on to the defensive, recognising that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had, indeed, tried to secure Turkish support against the Iraqi Kurds in the 80s, but that Ankara had apposed this. Nuzhet Kandemir, formerly special representative for relations with Iraq, indicated to the daily paper Milliyet that this proposal had been made to him by Taha Yacin Ramadan during a meeting in Baghdad in 1988, a few months after the launching of the murderous campaign against the Kurds called Anfal. “We will push the Kurds Northward, you will block their way and we will be able to put an end to the problem in a fundamental manner”, Mr. Ramadan had planned, according to Nuzhat Kandemir. The former ambassador
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