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Iraqi leader vows to block purges on
Hussein tribunal
29.7.2005
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BAGHDAD, Iraq,
July 28 - The president of Iraq said Thursday that
he would personally ensure the preservation of the
Iraqi tribunal preparing the trials of Saddam
Hussein and his aides.
The tribunal has been threatened with a purge of its
judges, prosecutors and officials.
The president, Jalal Talabani, made his comments at
a televised news conference alongside Raid Juhi, a
young judge investigating Mr. Hussein's crimes and
the most prominent of 19 tribunal members facing
dismissal for having been members of the Baath
Party, which governed Iraq under Mr. Hussein.
On Tuesday, a senior official on the commission
created to purge former Baath officials said it
intended to rid the tribunal of 19 former Baathists.
That statement ignited concern among American
officials and senior members of the Iraqi government
that the cases against Mr. Hussein might be
impaired, and apparently prompted Mr. Talabani's
remarks in defense of the tribunal.
"I will do my best to ensure that they are respected
by other government parties, especially the de-Baathification
commission," Mr. Talabani said of the tribunal
members.
Mr. Talabani is the first senior Iraqi official to
publicly defend the tribunal during the attempted
purge, and his remarks pose a direct challenge to
Ahmad Chalabi, a deputy prime minister and former
Pentagon ally who runs the commission purging former
Baathists.
Though the two worked together for years to oust Mr.
Hussein, they have a complicated relationship
because Mr. Chalabi has fallen out with some of Mr.
Talabani's fellow Kurdish officials.
Mr. Juhi, who is 34, appeared before television
cameras on Thursday in his crisp black robes and
tried to quell talk that he would be dismissed
anytime soon from the tribunal. "We are still
continuing our work," he said.
The political developments came on a day when
reports emerged of further violence across Iraq.
The American military said two soldiers died and a
third was injured in a roadside bomb explosion in
Baghdad on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, a roadside bomb exploded next
to a train carrying fuel in southern Baghdad,
setting the area ablaze and killing at least one
Iraqi guard and wounding at least four other people,
an Interior Ministry official said.
Civic groups and Shiite leaders held separate
meetings in Baghdad hotels to discuss the future
constitution. The civic groups released results of
an unscientific survey showing that more than 60
percent of respondents wanted strong autonomous
powers for regions or provinces and 35 percent
supported Islam as "the main source" of legislation
in Iraq, two major issues in the drafting of the
constitution.
Nearly a fifth said they did not want Islam to play
any role in the law, and 29 percent said they wanted
Islam and other religions to be the basis for
legislation.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
made it clear that the United States was making its
views known to Iraqi leaders on the writing of an
Iraqi constitution, not only to ensure that it is
completed by Aug. 15 but also to guarantee that the
charter protects women's rights.
"Obviously the United States stands for equality for
women worldwide," Ms. Rice said in an interview on
"The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." "I think I've been
out there even in some places where equality for
women seems quite far away, saying that the United
States believes that you cannot be half a
democracy."
Officials on the tribunal handling the crimes of Mr.
Hussein and his aides have said Mr. Chalabi is
trying to purge Mr. Juhi as a show of support for
Moktada al-Sadr, the popular firebrand cleric who
has led two uprisings against the Americans.
Mr. Juhi issued an arrest warrant against Mr. Sadr
in 2003 for Mr. Sadr's connection to the killing of
an American-backed Shiite cleric. That warrant was
later suspended because of a cease-fire agreement
the Americans and the Iraqi government reached with
Mr. Sadr.
Mr. Chalabi, one of the most canny and ambitious
politicians in Iraq, has formed an unlikely alliance
with Mr. Sadr, presumably to forge a political base
out of Mr. Sadr's many supporters. Mr. Chalabi,
though, adamantly denies that the actions of the
anti-Baath commission have anything to do with a
personal agenda.
Entifadh K. Qanbar, a spokesman for Mr. Chalabi,
issued a statement late Wednesday saying the
accusations "are false and unfounded and
unsubstantiated." He added, "Dr. Ahmad Chalabi is a
committed supporter of a strong and independent
judicial system in Iraq."
The anti-Baath commission has already dismissed nine
administrators from the tribunal, and American
officials have been fearful that further purging
would cripple the tribunal shortly before the first
trial of Mr. Hussein is expected to begin.
Mr. Juhi has been the lead investigator on cases
involving Mr. Hussein, and it was his research that
led the tribunal to bring charges against Mr.
Hussein and three associates related to a massacre
in the Shiite town of Dujail.
Mr. Juhi is now investigating the Anfal campaign of
the late 1980's in which tens of thousands of Kurds
were killed, and the suppression of a Shiite
rebellion in 1991 that resulted in as many as
150,000 victims being shot dead and bulldozed into
graves.
Concern over the disruption Mr. Juhi's dismissal
might cause the tribunal has been heightened by the
rapid leadership turnover at the Regime Crimes
Liaison Office, the American Embassy agency that
plays a powerful behind-the-scenes role in aiding
the tribunal's work.
Gregg R. Nivala, the Justice Department lawyer who
directs the liaison office, is leaving the post four
months after he took over from Gregory W. Kehoe, a
former prosecutor from Florida who guided much of
the tribunal's work in its first year. Mr. Nivala
will be replaced by his deputy, Chris Reid, a former
assistant to New Hampshire's attorney general.
www.nytimes.com
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