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Saywan Barzani: Keep Saddam alive to be
judged for all the crimes he inflicted
6.11.2006
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Saddam’s trial should be
global and bring to light all the massacres and
genocides as well as the collusion of many Western
and Middle-Eastern countries that backed or sold
weapons to the dictatorship.
Paris ,-- "Saddam Hussein ought to remain
alive to be judged for all the crimes he inflicted
on the Iraqi people. If he is eliminated, all the
witnesses to his massacres and genocides will be
gone," this according to Saywan Barzani, Kurdistan
Reg. Government representative in Europe.
For Saywan Barzani, nephew of the President of Iraqi
Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani, it is important
"to reveal the truth about these massacres and
genocides because they can show the role played by
Western and Eastern countries in backing Saddam, in
selling him weapons and in closing their eyes to
what he was doing". |
Saywan Barzani, European representative of the KRG-
Kurdistan Regional Government (Iraq) |
In view of the ideologically-contrived reaction to
the former dictator’s sentence (for or against the
US; for or against the death penalty), Barzani’s
proposal is out of synch with what most say.
“Executing him for 148 Shiites killed in Dujail,” he
noted, “when we are still waiting for the truth over
the massacre of hundreds of thousands of other
victims, Shia and Kurdish, could end up concealing
the guilt of many others in the world who were
linked to Saddam Hussein”.
“Saddam’s trial must be an education for the whole
world. The US and the USSR played out the Cold War
in Iraq; Middle Eastern dictatorships helped Saddam
in the war against Iran, but also against the Iraqi
people; all Western country, the Vatican being
perhaps the only exception, sold weapons, poisonous
gas, chemical bombs, anti-personnel mines to him”.
According to Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry, at least
two million people were killed or wounded during the
Iraqi invasion of Iran in the 1980s. In the first
Gulf War 200,000 people died. In the 1991 Shia
uprising, another 200,000 were killed. Saddam’s
genocide policy against the Kurds left 500,000 Kurds
dead. Under his regime, Iraq held the world record
for disappearances—an estimated 200,000 people
vanished after 1980, including
10,000 Feyli (Shia) Kurds and 8,000 members of the
Barzani tribe.
In the 1980s, 4500 villages and 26 cities were
destroyed. In Iraqi Kurdistan, 110 concentration
camps called “collective camps”—“strategic” or
“modern villages” in the regime’s lingo— were
created, surrounded by barbed wires and encircled by
security forces. More than 750 000 Kurds of the
mountainous areas were moved in these camps. In
addition, another half-million was moved to the
desert, in camps on the border with Saudi Arabia and
Jordan, in Arar, Rutba, Nougra Salman, and Rumadiya.
Altogether, the former Iraqi regime was responsible
for 4 million refugees, said Patrick Baudouin,
honorary president of the Fédération internationale
des ligues des droits de l'homme (FIDH)
[International Federation of Human Rights Leagues].
Saddam Hussein is currently on trial in another case
in which he is accused of genocide and crimes
against humanity for the al-Anfal (“The Spoils”)
campaign carried out in 1987-1988 that killed more
than 180,000 Kurds, many as a result of the use of
poisonous gas. However, if his first sentence is
upheld in the appeal phase, he might be executed
before the Kurdish genocide trial is ever completed.
In answering a question about whether Hussein’s
sentence will improve things in Iraq, Barzani said:
“A great deal of rhetoric is said about that. Saddam
Hussein does not have any more power in Iraq.
Whether he lives or dies won’t change anything. No
one backs him, and Iraq’s problems are no longer
caused by men linked to Saddam’s fate. Even the idea
that Iraq is on the verge of civil war or an
ethnic-religious war is false.
“It is certainly true that there are extremists
among the Shiites as well as among the Sunnis, but
the real problem lies in the permeable borders.
Suicide bombers keep on entering the country from
neighbouring countries.”
“Al-Qaeda said that it had 4,000 mujahideen ready to
give their lives in Iraq. According to the Iraqi
secret services at least 8,000 mujahideen have
already died. This means there is a virtual army of
fundamentalists in our country coming from Syria,
Iran, Afghanistan, etc. To these we must add the
more than 46,000 common criminals Saddam Hussein
released before his fall. The latter are running the
abduction industry. The formers are running the car
bomb industry. The result is insecurity everywhere.”
“The problem is that the Americans won’t accept our
ways to impose security. If they left it to us in a
few months there would be quiet everywhere.”
“Look at Kurdistan. Security there is delegated to
Kurdish peshmergas (Kurdistan National Guard) and
there are no attacks and abductions, and the borders
are under control.”
asianews it
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