linked - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro
de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti
Iraq is preparing
to bang Saddam
'We will do it very soon,' judge says;
sorne are stunned by speed of events
Saddam Hussein in court on Nov.5as he received the death sentence for
killings in the mainly Shiite village of Dujail in 1982.
By Marc Santora
BAGHDAD: The close of the final
chapter of the brutal reign of Saddam
Hussein approached Friday night as
Iraqi officiaIs prepared the, last legal
notice necessary before his execution
- a "red card" that will be presented to
the former dictator to inform him that
his end is near, Iraqi officiaIs said.
"We will do it very soon," said Muneer
Haddad, a judge on the Iraqi High
Tribunal who will represent the court
at the execution. He said the execution
would probably take place "tonight or
tomorrow."
The pace of events left even some of
the U.S. advisers working on the case
stunned, a Western officiaI said.
For a11the guidance the Americans
provided, in the end the dictator's demise
did not go the way they expected,
the officiaI said. "It just goes to show
that the Iraqis calI the shots on something
like this," the officiaI said.
It was still possible that the execution
could be delayed, Western and
Iraqi officiaIs cautioned. A senior Iraqi
officiaI said there could be other legal
hurdles.
A leading member of Parliament
from the dominant Shiite majority behind
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-
Maliki said in an interview with Reuters
that he was waiting only for a ruling
from clerics on whether the start of
the Id al-Adha holiday Saturday -
which coincides with the hajj, the
Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca - meant
the execution should be postponed for
aweek.
If it goes ahead, Maliki would seem
to have forced through a decision popular
with Shiites in the face of resistance
from Saddam's fellow Sunnis and popular
with Kurds eager to see Saddam
executed for carrying out a campaign
of genocide against them.
But Haddad, the judge, said a11that
remained was the technicallegal matter
of court officiaIs' filling out the red
card, the formaI notice of impending
execution created during the Saddam
era and widely used by his much-feared
secret police.
Iraqi and American officiaIs have
kept outsiders, including his legal
team, from contact with him, said Najib
al-Nauimi, one of Saddam's lawyers,
who was in Qatar.
There bas been heated debate among
Iraqi officiaIs about how swiftly to
carry out the death sentence, which was
handed down Nov. 5 and upheld Tuesday.
The appeals court said the hanging
had to take place within 30 days.
An Iraqi officiaI close to the negotiations
on when to execute Saddam expressed
deep disappointment that after
y~ars of forensic investigation, detailed
litigation and careful deliberation, the
process could be compromised in the
final hours by politica11y driven haste.
"According to the law, no execution
can be carried out during the holidays,"
said an officiaI involved in the negotiations.
'~fter all the hard work we have
done, why would we break the law and
ruin what we have built?"
The Muslim holiday ofId al-Adha begins
Saturday for Sunnis, which is Saddam's
sect, and Sunday for Shiites, who
were oppressed under Saddam's rule
but who now control the government
Iraqi law seems to indicate that executions
are forbidden on the holiday.
HatiLad dismissed those concerns,
injecting some of the sectarian split
that is ripping this country apart into
his response to a question on the subject.
"Tomorrow is not Id," he said. "The
officiaI Id in Iraq is Sunday."
As for Saddam's being a Sunni, Haddad
said: "Saddam is not Sunni. And he
is not Shiite. He is not Muslim."
His comments seemed to reflect the
views of Maliki, whose government is
ultimately responsible for the final decisions
regarding Saddam's fate.
Speaking in Baghdad on Friday to the
families of people who had been killed
while Saddam ruled, the prime minister
was blunt in his desire to see Saddam
executed quickly.
'~yone who rejects the execution of
Saddam is undermining the martyrs of
Iraq and their dignity," he said.
"Nobody can overrule the execution
sentence issued against Saddam."
Without specifying a time, date or
place, he said, "There is no review or
delay in implementing the execution
verdict against Saddam."
Esam al-Gazaw~ another lawyer who
represented Saddam, said in Jordan that
while one of his colleagues in Baghdad
had been asked to collect Saddam's personal
belongings, he had no idea when
the execution would actually take place.
"No one knows when it's going to
happen except God and President
Bush," he said.
Gazawi said he had been told that Saddam
had met with his two half-brothers,
Sabawai and Wataban, who are also in
custody, but no other family members.
"His sons are dead and his daughters
are here in Amman, so he met no one,"
he said. Saddam's two sons, Uday and
Qusay, were killed by American soldiers
after the 2003 invasion that
toppled him from power.
After his government collapsed, Saddam
went into hiding and was eventually
found in a hole near his hometown,
Tikrit. He was charged in three cases,
a11for crimes against humanity.
The first case involved the killing of
almost ISOShiite men and boys in the
sma11town of Dujail in 1982,after an attack
on his motorcade there. Saddam
was found guilty and sentenced to die
byhanging.
A trial on the far more sweeping
charges that he directed the killing of
50,000 Kurds in an organized ethnie
cleansing campaign is continuing.
The final case, involving the savage
crushing of a Shiite uprising, whieh left
thousands dead, has yet to go to trial.
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