Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari - Photo: AFP |
Rome, 18 Oct.
(AKI) - A day before Saddam Hussein goes on trial,
Iraq's foreign minister has revealed in an interview
that the former dictator still hasn't accepted his
fall from power. "He continues to insist that he is
the legitimate head of Iraq and that a foreign army
came and deposed him," Hoshyar Zebari told Italy's
La Repubblica newspaper. "Saddam still doesn't
appear to have understood that he lost the war. He
doesn't seem to realise that the country has already
held new elections and there are new leaders."
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Speaking about the trial of the former dictator over
the massacre of 143 Iraqi Shiites in 1982, which is
due to start tomorrow and be held in public, Zebari
said the country will be watching "with great
confidence. Because the outcome of the trial will be
free and will be respected by everyone."
Saddam also faces charges of many other crimes
against humanity, including gassing more than 5,000
Kurds in Halabja in northern Iraq in 1988; launching
the 1980-88 war against Iran which killed an
estimated one million people; invading Kuwait in
1990; and the massacre of tens of thousands of
Shiites in southern Iraq, who had been encouraged to
rise up against Saddam by the coalition forces after
the Gulf War in 1991.
Talking about the Iraqi referendum to approve or
reject the country's draft constitution, Zebari
described Saturday as "an historic day", explaining:
"The Iraqi people have, for the first time, the
possibility of writing their own constitution
themselves. It is a democratic process, aimed at
laying the basis for a federalist, pluralist,
democratic and united state. We are waiting for the
results. I don't rule out the charter being amended
in the future."
However, if the constitution is rejected he warns,
"the country could descend into total chaos."
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