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January
1, 2007
Iraq's Kurds expressed satisfaction yesterday at the
death of Saddam Hussein, but their joy was tempered
with disappointment that their greatest tormentor
would never face justice for what he had done to
them.
Saddam had been standing trial in a second case on
charges of genocide against the Kurds during the
Anfal campaign in the late 1980s, during which more
than 4,000 villages were destroyed and more than
100,000 people killed in a series of military sweeps
in the Kurdistan region that included the regular
use of chemical weapons.
The former dictator was also due to face separate
charges over the gas attack on Halabja in March 1988
that killed 5,000 Kurds. Sources at the special
tribunal trying Saddam and six members of his former
regime in the Anfal trial said yesterday that
proceedings would resume on January 8. The remaining
defendants are Ali Hassan Majid, known as Chemical
Ali, a cousin of Saddam, described by Kurds as the
evil face of the Anfal campaign; Sultan Hashim Ahmad
Jabburi Tai, former defence minister; Sabir Abdul
Aziz Douri, director of military intelligence;
Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a senior military officer;
Taher Tawfiq Ani, former governor of Nineveh
province; and Farhan Mutlaq Jubouri, head of
military intelligence in northern Iraq.
Under Iraqi law, all outstanding charges against an
executed person must be dropped. Without the
interest that would be caused by the presence of the
chief defendant, Kurds fear that their past
suffering will attract less attention from fellow
Iraqis and the international community.
A spokesman for the Kurdish president, Massoud
Barzani, said: "We hope that Saddam's execution will
lead to a new chapter among the Iraqi people, and to
ending innocent people's sufferings." But he added:
"We also wish that the execution not be used as an
excuse to ignore the documentation of the enormous
crimes committed against the Kurds."
"How can I be sad that the tyrant is gone? It is
like a dream come true for the survivors in my
family," said Herro Mahmoud, a primary school
teacher in Sulaymaniyah who lost her father and
uncle to the Anfal (which means spoils of war). "But
I think they should have waited until the other
cases had been heard, and all the scale of the other
atrocities would be known."
Other Kurds said they felt cheated. "Saddam was
hanged for the murder of 148 people in Dujail. But
why won't he face the court for killing hundreds of
thousands of Kurds? Do our dead and our traumatised
people not deserve to be honoured?" said Bijar
Ahmed, an English student at the university of Koi
Sanjaq.
Mahmoud Othman, a prominent Kurdish MP in Baghdad
who survived several assassination attempts by the
former regime, criticised the Iraqi government's
apparent rush to carry out the death sentence before
the end of the Anfal trial.
"It was very important to keep him alive so that we
could know the full details of what happened during
all the atrocities that were committed," he said.
"We need to know how and why he did what he did and
who helped him, by providing political and material
support to his regime."
Saddam had taken many secrets to his grave, he said,
including vital knowledge about "the foreign
companies and countries that supplied the parts and
expertise to make chemical weapons."
guardian co.uk
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