December 31, 2006
Expatriate Iraqi IRAQI Kurds gathered in Glasgow
yesterday to remember those killed under the
dictator's regime.
More than a dozen campaigners met at the Halabja
memorial tree in the city's Queen's Park. The tree
was planted in 1990 to commemorate the 5000 citizens
of the northern Iraqi town who were gassed by
Saddam's forces in 1988.
Parents and children held enlarged pictures
graphically portraying dead bodies and atrocities
carried out by Saddam's regime.
But some Kurds were angered by the premature
execution, saying the dictator should have been
tried for crimes against the Kurdish people before
any punishment was carried out.
Former Kurdish Youth Movement member Peri Ibrahim,
43, said yesterday: "I am unhappy today. I am not
unhappy to see him
executed but the way they dealt with it was all
wrong.
The Kurdish had a right to hear him made
answerable for the crimes against the Kurdish people.
"I would rather see him in prison to witness Iraq
under a democratic regime and even eventually the
independence of Kurdistan.
"He should have been made to take personal
responsibility for every crime he committed. The
Kurdish tale is told against them now and no-one has
been held responsible for the crimes against the
Kurds such as the Halabja gassing."
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Chemical attacks against Kurds
Photos: KURDNET Archive |
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But Aziz Othman, a Syrian-born representative of the
Kurdish Yekti Party, said that Saddam's death had
not come soon enough. "This is a great moment for
the Kurds. We have been waiting for this since
Saddam was captured. It took too long," he said.
"Supporters of Saddam in Iraq had hoped the new
democratic regime would fail and that one day this
man would come back to power. This has finally shown
the members of the Ba'ath Party that this will not
happen."
Kurdish human rights campaigner Dr Kamal Ketuly had
many family members deported to Iran. Some of his
relatives were held hostage in Iraq's Abu Ghraib
prison during Saddam's regime. He said: "It is the
end of an era in which a criminal, dictatorial
regime ruled and destroyed our country which was the
cradle of democracy.
"We are here for those people who are still in
Kurdistan."
Waleed Shanki, an Iraqi Arab from Baghdad, said:
"The main thing today is that we need to remember
the Iraqi people who lost their loved ones under his
regime and in the war in Iraq.
"I think it was right Saddam was executed. We
support the British point of view against the death
penalty but this was a law voted for in the
constitution by the Iraqi people and it is right
that Saddam be tried under it. It was part of the
old constitution.
"He received a fair trial with legal representation,
a luxury he did not give to those who suffered under
his regime."
sundayherald com
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