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Presidents Talabani, Barzani says US
invasion toppled gory regime
20.3.2008
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Iraq's President Jalal Talabani: Era of torture,
tyranny over.
Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani: US toppled gory
regime.
March 20, 2008
BAGHDAD -- The U.S.-led war ended the brutal
rule of torture and tyranny under Saddam Hussein,
even if Iraq today faces the perils of terrorism and
corruption, President Jalal Talabani said Wednesday,
the eve of the conflict's fifth anniversary.
"The brutal regime of the dictator fell...the regime
that ruled Iraq for decades, the decades of
darkness. The decades that were of tyranny,"
Talabani said in a statement released Wednesday.
During Saddam's iron-fisted rule, the prisons were
full of "innocent prisoners", said Talabani, a
Kurdish former rebel foe of Saddam. |
Iraqi President : Jalal Talabani, a Kurd |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
"These cells were
Saddam's theaters for torture and brutal crimes."
On Thursday, Iraq marks the fifth anniversary of the
U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam's regime, but also
plunged the nation into chaos and bloodshed.
Talabani said Saddam's regime "wasted" the wealth of
oil- and water-rich Iraq by taking the nation to a
series of wars.
In comment to the fifth anniversary of US invasion
to Iraq, Kurdistan region President Massoud Barzani
told Al Hayat Newspaper that the entrance of
Coalition Forces five years ago has toppled a gory
and oppressive regime and paved the way for a
federal pluralistic and Democratic would be Iraq.
However,www.ekurd.net
Barzani stressed that
neither the decision of war, nor Iraq invasion nor
tens of other decisions taken by Bremer
Administration reflected Iraqis’ choice or had they
had the choice to refuse them.
As for Kurdistan speaker Adnan Al Mufti, he affirmed
that the current situation in Iraq is better than
the time before the topple of the former regime.
"The former regime violated all values of humanity.
It used chemical weapons on men, women and children
of Halabja and carried out the brutal Anfal
campaign, " he said referring to military strikes
launched by Saddam's forces on Iraqi Kurds in 1988
during the Iran-Iraq war.
International human right activists say that nearly
182,000 Kurds killed and 4000 Kurdish villagers were
slaughtered in these strikes.
Talabani said the former regime kept the country
"backward" even as the world progressed.
"Iraqis were not allowed to use mobile phones, or
Internet or satellite channels. The regime prevented
publishing of magazines and scientific journals," he
said.
But the "liberation of Iraq" by U.S.-led forces was
the start of a new era, he said.
"The walk on this new path began five years ago but
it faces huge difficulties. There is violence and
terrorism and corruption has become a dangerous
disease," he said.
"The presidency and the political leadership are
doing their best to treat these deficiencies and
take the country towards stability. We are confident
that the journey that began five years ago will be
completed with the growing national unity."
AFP | Al Hayat
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