|
Baghdad -- Appearing haggard and feeble, a
former Iraqi general known as Chemical Ali appeared
before a tribunal Saturday at the start of judicial
proceedings against former President Saddam Hussein
and 11 deputies in U.S. custody.
Ali Hassan al-Majid was one of two former officials
brought before the hearing in a sparsely decorated
room, bare but for a chair and a desk with a
green-wrapped Quran on it. He was joined by Sultan
Hashim Ahmad, the former defense minister. Ahmad's
testimony is expected to help build the case against
al-Majid, Hussein's first cousin and the man accused
of instigating some of the former government's
bloodiest episodes over two decades.
The hearing was closed to the public. In brief
comments, the tribunal's chief judge, Raad al-Juhyi,
said that the proceedings would cover the Baath
Party's 35-year reign in Iraq. Despite criticism by
some human rights groups that the trials are being
rushed, al-Juhyi promised a methodical investigation
and due process for the defendants.
"Speed in the legal process is the plague of the
judicial system," he said.
The actual trials will not begin until next year in
a process likely to be dramatic and lengthy,
rekindling memories of Hussein's long and brutal
rule. Al-Juhyi stressed that the hearing on Saturday
was part of a grand-jury-like investigation of the
men, who are expected eventually to face charges of
war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
There was no word on when Hussein would come before
the tribunal for a hearing.
"What happened today was an ordinary investigative
hearing for the accused," al-Juhyi told reporters
afterward. "It could be repeated many times."
In video without sound that was released by the
tribunal, al-Majid, using a cane, was shown being
escorted into the hearing room by Iraqi police.
Wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and no tie,
al-Majid was helped to a chair and his handcuffs
were removed. His hair was noticeably grayer than
when he last appeared in court in July.
Ahmad, who was defense minister during the U.S.
invasion in 2003, was shown standing in the room. At
times, he looked down at the floor and seemed to be
smiling wryly.
Ahmad surrendered to U.S. forces in September 2003.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh has said that
Ahmad is expected to testify against al-Majid, who
was taken into U.S. custody in August 2003.
Al-Majid's career mirrored the rise and fall of the
man he served so loyally for 24 years.
A former motorcycle messenger in the Iraqi military,
al-Majid was said to have taken part in the arrests
and executions of 66 people accused of plotting a
coup just days after Hussein's 1979 inauguration. At
times interior and defense minister, he was
appointed governor of Kuwait soon after Iraq invaded
the neighboring emirate in 1990. After the 1991
Persian Gulf War, he was instrumental in the brutal
repression of the Shiite Muslim uprising, and he
personally reoccupied Basra, the country's
second-largest city.
Famous video footage shows al-Majid, his paunch
stretching his uniform, chain-smoking, kicking
prisoners on the ground and, as was his habit,
hurling insults.
His role in crushing Kurdish resistance during the
1980-88 Iran-Iraq war earned him his greatest
notoriety, and al-Juhyi said the episode was the
focus of the investigation.
In March 1987, Hussein appointed al-Majid, by then a
general, head of his forces in northern Iraq. Al-Majid
soon used chemical weapons in two Kurdish cities,
which was how he came by his nickname. In the
ensuing months, he launched a scorched-earth
campaign known as Anfal. In all, 100,000 Kurds --
perhaps many more -- were killed. Iraqi forces
destroyed 2,000 villages, with mass transfers of
residents, to create a buffer zone.
In the most notorious episode, in March 1988, his
forces used mustard gas and nerve agents against
Halabja, a town near the Iranian border, killing an
estimated 5,000 people. U.S. forces, then tacitly
backing Iraq in the war, initially blamed Iran,
although the Bush administration later used the
episode as part of its justification for the 2003
invasion.
The proceedings come just six weeks before Iraq's
Jan. 30 elections for a parliament, and some critics
of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi have accused
him of speeding up the process to gain political
capital during the campaign. In Baghdad, sentiments
varied: Some people cited still painful memories of
Hussein's rule, while others spoke of the crushing
fuel crisis that had fed disenchantment with the
interim government and its U.S. allies.
"This is all for the elections," said Abdel-Amir
Muhsin, 38, a schoolteacher waiting in a two-mile
line for gasoline. "Did they know that while they
were inside the court, I was waiting here in the
cold weather for fuel?"
San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Top |
® 
