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Saddam to Kurds: "We Will Crush Your
Heads!"
12.9.2006
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BAGHDAD, September 12 ,-- An Iraqi Kurd told
Saddam Hussein's genocide trial on Tuesday how his
mother and sisters' remains were found in a mass
grave more than 120 miles from their village, which
he said was razed by Saddam's troops.
A defiant Saddam defended his policy of crushing
Kurdish rebels in the 1980s as his Sunni-led
government fought a war against Iran and shouted
before the judge cut his microphone: "You are agents
of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads!"
Addressing the ex-leader with a mocking:
"Congratulations, Saddam Hussein. You are now in a
cage!" Abdul Ghafour described how he fled to
neighboring Iran with other relatives as troops
shelled the village in Iraq's Kurdistan in February
of 1988.
Speaking calmly in Kurdish, Abdul Ghafour said the
remains of his mother and two sisters, along with
their identity cards, were unearthed in a desert
mass grave 15 years after the attack on the mountain
village of Seydar, near northern Sulaimaniya.
"I don't know why these tragedies came to us. Is it
only because we're Kurds?" he said.
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Former dictator Saddam Hussein (R), Ali Hassan Al-Majeed
known as "Chemical Ali" (L)
Photo : AFP |
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Dressed in a dark suit and tieless, Saddam stroked
his beard and listened silently to the witness, but
erupted into a rage during cross-examination when a
civil attorney described Kurdish peshmerga militias
as freedom fighters battling his tyranny.
"From 1961 to 2003, rebellion is rebellion. Let's
come up with one country which had a rebellion that
wasn't confronted by the army," the toppled leader
said.
Saddam and the other six defendants accused over the
1988 operation which prosecutors say left 182,000
ethnic Kurds dead or missing, have said the attacks
were legitimate military strikes against Iraqi Kurds
fighting alongside Shi'ite Iran against the Baghdad
government during the 1980s.
Saddam, 69, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known
as "Chemical Ali," and five former commanders face
charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity
for their role in the Anfal (Spoils of War)
campaign.
Saddam and Majeed also face a charge of genocide.
All face the death penalty. Saddam is waiting for a
verdict next month from his first trial for crimes
against humanity in the killing of some 148 Shi'ite
men from the town of Dujail in the 1980s.
The toppled leader, who has dismissed the
U.S.-backed trials as little more than political
vendetta by his Shi'ite and Kurdish enemies,
demanded that a neutral country examine all evidence
found in mass graves.
"Get neutral countries like Switzerland or a similar
neutral country," he said.
Majeed, who earned his nickname for allegedly
masterminding gas attacks had a more banal demand
for the judge.
Complaining of his frugal living conditions in a
U.S.-protected cell he politely asked for a
television set. The judge did not respond.
Reuters
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