Kurd tells of gas attacks at Saddam trial

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: Jay Deshmukh
Date: 22 August 2006

BAGHDAD, Aug 22, 2006 (AFP) - Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein faced for
the first time Tuesday a Kurdish witness who alleged he ordered his armed
forces to slaughter civilians and depopulate a huge swathe of northern Iraq.


As the second day of Saddam's trial began at the Iraqi High Tribunal,
prosecutors introduced villagers to testify to the alleged savagery of the
1987-1988 Anfal campaign, over which Saddam has been charged with genocide.

The prosecution alleges that up to 182,000 civilians were slaughtered in air
strikes, poison gas attacks and armed sweeps by Iraqi forces through
designated "prohibited zones" in Kurdish regions.

"On April 16, 1987 in the evening as the cattle were returning home and the
sun was setting in the sky, about eight to 12 jets covered the sky," said
Ali Mustafa Hama, a Kurdish villager with a thick moustache and spotted
headscarf.

"The jets started firing on the villages of Belisand and Sheikwasan. The
explosions were not very loud," he continued, testifying in open court,
unlike the anonymous witnesses in Saddam's first trial for mass murder.

"There was green smoke rising from the bomb later, as if there was a rotten
apple or garlic smell. Lots of citizens immediately had red eyes and began
to vomit. Afterwards it was dark," the middle-aged farmer continued.

Hama and his fellow villaghers were taken away by cart for treatment, many
of them weakened by the gas. Many died, the court heard.

Prosecutors are expected to make great play of testimony that Anfal made
liberal use of illegal chemical weapons, in what was allegedly the first
large-scale use of such bombs by a leader against his own citizens.

At the start of Tuesday's session, two of Saddam's six co-accused had argued
that Anfal was justified in the context of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war as an
offensive against separatist Kurdish guerrillas and Iranian invaders.

"Iranians and Kurds were fighting hand in hand against the Iraqi militiary.
Iran wanted to break through and enter Sulaimaniyah," Sabeer al-Duri,
Saddam's former director of military intelligence, told the court.

"We had military intelligence that Iranian forces were saboteurs in the
northern area. We were fighting an organised army which was lacking only
armour and airplanes," said former defence minister Sultan Hashem al-Tai.

The chief prosecutor said Monday that 1,175 victims's testimonies had been
recorded and "65 to 75 of them will testify."

The tribunal's investigative judge Raed al-Juhi told reporters that many of
the witnesses were now "occupying official positions in the government."

On Monday, Saddam defiantly refused to enter a plea when accused of
masterminding the infamous Anfal campaign.

In what was a rowdy first hearing, the former ruler clashed with the chief
judge Abdallah al-Ameri a number of times and also threatened revenge
against the lead prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon.

Court officials expect that the Anfal trial will last for around four
months. Along with Saddam, six former officials including his cousin Ali
Hassan al-Majid -- the notorious "chemical Ali -- are facing charges.

Saddam and al-Mahid have refused to enter pleas on genocide charges, and teh
court has ordered that innocent pleas be entered. The remaining defendants
are expecetd to fae a variety of war crimes and crimes against humanity
charges.

Saddam has already been tried on a charge that he ordered the execution of
148 Shiite civilians from the town of Dujail after a failed assassination
attempt against him in 1982, and could face the death penalty.
 
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