BAGHDAD, October 18, -- Saddam Hussein's troops
drove terrified Kurdish villagers into the desert
and gunned them down by the truckload, witnesses
told the ousted Iraqi leader's genocide trial
Wednesday.
Two detainees who escaped after last-minute
struggles with the death squads told of stumbling
into the night
while a full moon shone down on a ghostly landscape
dotted with mass graves and bullet-riddled corpses.
Their testimony was the first eye-witness account of
mass killings during Saddam's 1988 "Anfal" campaign
against Iraq's Kurdish minority, during which
prosecutors allege that 182,000 people were
slaughtered.
Speaking anonymously from behind a screen, two
Kurdish men described how they and their fellow camp
inmates were driven to the desert in stinking
trucks, stained with urine and faeces.
"It was an unpaved road. Our vehicle got stuck in
the sand ... and we heard gunfire. It wasn't that
close, it was far
from us, but we heard screaming and gunfire," one
said.
"Then it was dark, and they brought a group of
people in front of a vehicle. The drivers got out of
our vehicles and
turned on the headlights, put three lines or four
lines of people in front of our vehicle and opened
fire." |
Former dictator Saddam Hussein (R), Ali Hassan Al-Majeed
known as "Chemical Ali" (L)
Photo : AFP |
|
The prisoner struggled with the guards and shooting
broke out. Although injured, he managed to flee.
"I fled from the shooting and I fell into a ditch
and it was full of bodies. I fell on a body, he was
still alive, it was his last breath.
"I saw light in the distance and ran towards the
lights. As I was running I saw many pits. I saw
people who had been shot. The desert was full of
mounds that all had people buried underneath," he
said.
One of Saddam's co-defendants, Ali Hassan al-Majid
-- the notorious "Chemical Ali" -- mocked the
witness, accusing him of telling a "tale worthy of
Hollywood," but a second Kurd gave a similar
harrowing account.
"We went for a while on the unpaved road, we felt we
were going to die, that they were going to kill us.
We arrived and the armed guards got off," he said.
"Then we heard the sound of gunfire and we knew it
was the people in the next vehicle being shot and
that our turn would be next. We exchanged
forgiveness and were weeping," he said.
"At that point we decided that if they came to kill
us we are going to attack them. If one of 34 people
survived it was worth a try," he added.
The detainees' moment came when guards attempted to
take one blindfolded prisoner out of the truck. They
revolted, attacking him and trying to force the door
open.
"He wasn't able to lock the door so the guards
outside started firing into the vehicle. They
continued to fire all over the vehicle from every
direction and I was injured by a bullet in my back,"
the witness said.
Without sight in one eye and covered in blood, the
witness was among a small group which burst out of
the truck.
Some grabbed for the guards' guns, while he
staggered off into the night amid the mayhem.
Saddam and six co-defendants were represented by
court-appointed counsel as the hearing resumed,
although Judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah said
that if their own private lawyers turned up they
could turn to court.
For the past month, the defence has boycotted the
trial in protest at alleged interference by the
Iraqi government, while the defendants' noisy
protests have often seen them expelled from the
dock.
The defence team said Wednesday they needed to
discuss a string of demands before they can call off
their boycott.
"There will be contacts with the court, under the
supervision of the Americans, and in light of that
we will decide whether or not to end the boycott,"
Saddam's chief Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said.
Previous witnesses have told of how hundreds of
fellow camp inmates died of hunger or disease or
were raped and murdered by guards, while prosecutors
have shown identity papers found in mass graves.
The former president and his co-defendants insist
the operation was a legitimate military campaign
against separatist guerrillas and fighters who sided
with Iran, with which Iraq was at war during the
1980s.
Saddam and Majid, a former military commander who
became notorious for anti-Kurd gas attacks, are
accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war
crimes.
The five others are charged with war crimes and
crimes against humanity, and all seven accused face
the death penalty if convicted.
"It won't be long. An execution order on this
criminal despot and his criminal aides will be
passed soon," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said.
"His execution will remove the playing card on which
those who want to be back in power are betting," he
told reporters.
The case was adjourned until Thursday.
The Iraqi High Tribunal has also set a date of
November 5 for the verdict in Saddam's earlier trial
for crimes against humanity over the killing of 148
villagers in the 1980s.
AFP
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