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"New Saddams" Must Also Face Justice
9.11.2006
By Mariwan Hama-Saeed (ICR No. 201, 9-Nov-06)
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Now that Saddam has been
convicted, Iraq's other criminals - its corrupt
officials, militia leaders and terrorists - should
be tried too.
I don't generally agree with the death penalty, but
Saddam is an exception. Many Iraqis agree with me
that even the death penalty may not be enough for
people like Saddam.
I am an Iraqi Kurd from Halabja, where thousands of
people, including some of my family members, were
killed in a chemical attack by the regime in 1988. I
understand the suffering of the people of Dujail -
for which Saddam was sentenced to death - and I am
pleased with the verdict. But at the same time, I
fear that Iraqis will never truly see justice for
the crimes that were and are being committed against
them.
I must say that I felt more relief and hope the day
Saddam was arrested. I thought that the trial would
be quick and would bring together rather than divide
my country, as I see is happening now. I also tried
hard to convince myself that the verdict didn't have
anything to do with US politics. But the fact is
that the sentencing of Saddam and his associates was
delayed until two days before a crucial
congressional election that tested US president
George Bush's policy on Iraq.
To me, Saddam is the source of all the miseries
Iraqis experienced: he led the country through
several wars, killed hundreds of thousands of
innocent people and destroyed Iraq's infrastructure.
He changed the demographics in the cities and made
ethnic groups hate each other. Saddam's legacy is
still ruling Iraq, and it will continue.
I can see how the verdict has divided Iraq, which
saddens me to my core. While we have various
identities I first consider myself an Iraqi, bonded
with all of my countrymen. We all suffered under
Saddam, and I strongly believe that those who oppose
the verdict are in a state of denial.
It also saddens me that the future of Iraq does not
look brighter. We are being torn apart and are
living in horrible conditions. Our leaders are both
ignoring and inflaming the situation rather than
resolving it.
Now more than ever, we need justice. In order for
this to happen, Saddam and his aides must be kept
alive until he can be tried for crimes like Halabja.
And Iraq's other criminals – its corrupt officials,
the militia leaders and terrorists – also must face
justice. They are the new Saddams in Iraq.
Saddam's sentence should be a lesson for the new
Iraqi officials that there is no way to get away
with crimes and wrongdoings. We technically have a
democracy and have held elections, but they were
riddled with fraud. The country suffers from
instability, sectarian violence, corruption and lack
of basic services. Those are crimes and the
perpetrators need to be brought to justice.
The Iraqi government has proven itself to be a
puppet government of militias that are controlling
the streets and cities in Iraq. Dozens of people are
killed daily and the government has failed to end
the bloodshed. Sectarian violence is growing and
once enjoyable mixed neighborhoods and cities are
disappearing.
Corrupt officials are stealing Iraq's money from
north to south and east to west, but none of them
has been brought before the courts. So to me, it is
not only Saddam and his aides that need to be tried.
There are more in the queue.
Mariwan Hama-Saeed is the Kurdish editor for the
Iraqi Crisis Report and a master's candidate in
journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
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