by Ahmad al-Rubaye


DUJAIL, Iraq, Oct 19 (AFP) - Chants of "execute the criminal" echoed in the
main square of the small Iraqi town of Dujail Wednesday as Saddam Hussein
stood trial for the execution of 143 of its Shiite residents more than 20
years ago.

But diehard supporters of the fallen dictator condemned the US-sponsored
trial, while an old man in a Baghdad cafe bemoaned "our humiliated hero" as
he watched the proceedings on television.

Iraqi Kurds watched with satisfaction, proud of the fact that the presiding
judge was one of their own.

In the view of the victims' families, death is too light a sentence for the
ousted dictator, they say his family should be executed too in the same
spirit of reprisal as in 1982 after a failed attempt on his life.

"Saddam Hussein should be executed, him and his whole family," chanted the
100 or so demonstrators who gathered in Dujail to hail the appearance of
Saddam and seven co-defendants in the dock of a Baghdad courtroom.

"Death to Saddam," screamed placards brandished by demonstrators alongside
pictures of their lost loved ones.

The town still bears the scars of reprisals exacted by Saddam's security
services in razed homes and uprooted orchards.

"Saddam, his daughters, his entire family should be executed," said Hadia
Najem Abbud, who lost five brothers in the punitive operation, including one
who had just turned 11.
Death too good for Saddam, Dujail families claim

But in Baghdad's old Ferdous (Paradise) cafe, where card and domino players
had been engrossed in games before the trial began, a client revived a
popular chant from before the US-led war that ended Saddam's regime.

"Your name makes America tremble," the young man said, while declining to
give his own.

In Dujail, Zeidan and bereaved relatives still have no idea where their lost
loved ones are buried.

Scores of mass graves have been identified in Iraq since the US-led invasion
in March 2003, but none of the remains of the missing have yet been located.


"Karim was 20 when they took him away in front of his seven-months pregnant
wife," said Mona Zeid of her missing brother. "He was executed and his body
was never returned to us," she said.

Police and troops manned checkpoints on roads leading into Dujail for the
opening of Saddam's trial, a reminder it was not universally welcomed.

For the 50,000-odd residents of Dujail, just north of Baghdad, like the rest
of Iraq's Shiite majority, the passing of his Sunni Arab-dominated regime is
great news.

But among Sunnis who benefited from his regime, its overthrow is widely
mourned, and sporadically opposed with violence.

In the ousted president's hometown of Tikrit, loyalists took to the streets
to denounce "foreign agents" of the "traitor government" that had put him on
trial.

"With our soul, with our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you Saddam,"
they chanted in the classic oath of loyalty to the old regime.

The demonstators, some of whom were armed, later gathered near the city's
main mosque in a tense standoff with police manning a roadblock 500 metres
(yards) away.

The Saddam support rally was the third in Tikrit in 24 hours and was copied
across the Sunni belt of north-central Iraq.

In the insurgent bastion of Fallujah, residents swore their former president
should never have been put on trial because any offences he may have
committed were in defence of Iraq and the stability of its government.

US President George W. Bush "would have done the same if his motorcade had
been attacked," insisted Shaker Mohammed in reference to the 1982 killings.

In the upscale Baghdad neighbourhood of Karrada, residents said Saddam had
to be judged by regional standards.

"If Saddam is executed, then all Arab dictators should be," said Raed Ihsan,
a teacher. "He was actually the least bad."

They're going to have to execute him. He's too dangerous a possibility as a figurehead if nothing else. Fine that the Kurds kill him too. Nobody could question their need for justice.

I kind of like the idea of hanging him... waiting until he is just about expired, revive him and repeat about 50 times. Just a thought.

Oh if you're going for painful ends that will make an impression you can't beat the Chinese method of the "death by 10,000 cuts". That is for those not in the know, the method of making as many as possible tiny cuts all over the person's skin and then throwing them into a pit of salt. Every blood vessel in their skin bursts and it's oh so exhilarating! You could then top it off by burying him inside a pig carcass like Pershing had them do with the Muslim guerillas in the Phillipines a hundred years ago.

Originally Posted by Charge 7

Oh if you're going for painful ends that will make an impression you can't beat the Chinese method of the "death by 10,000 cuts". That is for those not in the know, the method of making as many as possible tiny cuts all over the person's skin and then throwing them into a pit of salt. Every blood vessel in their skin bursts and it's oh so exhilarating! You could then top it off by burying him inside a pig carcass like Pershing had them do with the Muslim guerillas in the Phillipines a hundred years ago.

Charge what makes you so romantic today?

damn.. you went there.. how about just strapping him to the front of an MLRS ATACMS?

Too quick and a waste of money unless we fire it on Iran. "Hey boys, you want that guy who gased all your troops? Here he comes!" :P

Italian Guy, I'm in the middle of moving 1200 miles. That should explain my attitude today quite clearly.

how about we let every family here in Iraq that he has had a negative impact them on over the years line up and have their way with him for 60 seconds. about 15 million folks... that would work...

We could let them each remove a tiny portion of his body as a keepsake.

Send his balls to Spain though because apparantly they need some.

Originally Posted by Charge 7

We could let them each remove a tiny portion of his body as a keepsake.

Send his balls to Spain though because apparantly they need some.

Oooohwoah man I'm falling in love with you