Saddam trial could worsen Iraq's sectarian divide 16.10.2005

Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AP

On Friday, hundreds of Shiite followers of the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr took to the streets of Baghdad calling for Saddam to be executed.

Last month, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafai, a Shiite, warded off speculation that Saddam's trial could be postponed, saying the date could not be pushed back because the matter had already "taken more time than necessary."

Also eager for their chance at retribution are the Kurds, who make up between 15 and 20 percent of the population of Iraq and live in a largely autonomous region known as Kurdistan in the north.

Saddam's regime is said to have gassed 5,000 Kurds in Halabja in 1988 and launched the "Anfal" operation when 180,000 people are reported to have been killed in a brutal campaign to suppress rebellious Kurds.

Even though President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, is staunchly opposed to the death penalty, he has said Saddam "deserves to die one hundred times" for his crimes.

Even the government spokesman, Leith Kubba, has gone so far as to express his hope for Saddam's quick execution if he is found guilty.

However, such statements have enraged Saddam's defence team.

Saddam's lawyers say the government's public support for the harshest penalty for their client makes a fair hearing impossible and accuse the Iraqi Special Tribunal of holding a "politically loaded" trial.

"When politicians get involved in the judicial process, one can wonder if the judiciary is independent," said Abdul Haq Alani, a British lawyer based in London who is advising Saddam's defence team.

Both Jaafari and Talabani have denied any political meddling in court proceedings.

"No political decision to eliminate Saddam Hussein has been taken and the judiciary is independent," Talabani said in September, with Jaafari vowing no interference with the "independent" legal authorities.

But regardless, Sunni Arabs say they feel targeted by the trial, and expect the proceedings will increase discontent among their once powerful community and heighten tensions with majority Shiites.

"Saddam Hussein is not the representative of Sunnis the way the government makes him out to be, but of all the Iraqi people," said one former Revolutionary guard member who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Shiites were in power, as ministers or members of the (former ruling) Revolutionary Command Council, but no one wants to remember this," he said.

"We don't want to see the return of Saddam to power or someone similar. We would have preferred an internal change of regime."

Even the date on which the trial is set to begin is "perceived as highly political," according to one expert, because it comes days after a referendum on a new charter for Iraq, whose government is dominated by Shiites.

"The Iraqi government is trying to win over one fringe of society -- the Shiites -- at the risk of losing another fringe -- the Sunnis," legal expert Nizar Samarrai said.

Samarrai believes the trial aims to channel frustration in poor Shiite neighbourhoods, where the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi army is entrenched, and use it against Saddam.

As Sadr followers shouted "Death to Saddam" during Friday's demonstrations, Sunni Arab politicians warned that the trial would add to the ranks of disenchanted Sunni Arabs, who are already believed to form the backbone of the raging insurgency.

"This is humiliation for Sunni Arabs, which risks pushing more young people into opposing this government," said Saad al-Shaowi, a tribal chief in Tikrit, near Saddam's hometown.

AFP  

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