Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media:AFP
Byline:Jay Deshmukh
Date: 22 August 2006
BAGHDAD, Aug 21, 2006 (AFP) - The first witnesses were expected to testify
Tuesday on the second day of the genocide trial of ousted Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein, accused of overseeing the death of 182,000 Kurds.
The chief prosecutor of the Iraqi High Tribunal, which is trying Saddam and
six other co-defendants over a brutal 1988 crackdown against Kurds, said
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 of 1988, which sought to suppress
separatist sentiment among Kurds through mass slaughter.
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.
"If he says that a Iraqi woman was raped in my era and if he does not prove
it, I will hunt him for the rest of my life," Saddam thundered.
In his opening remarks Faroon gave details of the Anfal campaign in which it
is alleged that Iraqi forces used poison gas, air strikes and forced
evictions into brutal holding centres to depopulate broad swathes of Kurdish
land.
"I urge you to listen carefully to the details of these events... It is
difficult to fathom the barbarity of such acts," Faroon told the court.
He showed the court photographs of mass graves -- including one in which the
body of an infant child still suckling on a milk bottle was buried next to
his mother -- and detailed the eight stages of the Anfal campaign.
On February 22, 1988, the Iraqi air force allegedly began firing chemical
weapons into the Juwaid Valley outside the northern city of Sulaimaniyah.
This was followed up with an eight month campaign of terror, the court
heard.
"Women, children were transferred to detention centres made in advance.
Detainees suffered harshly. Camps had no basic services. Detainees were
exposed to torture, insults and non-potable water," Faroon said.
"Those who died were buried outside the camps by the detainees and later
animals were set free to dig up those graves, mostly in the Samawa desert.
"Women were put through psychological torture. Their infant babies were
separated from them. The babies and the mothers were allowed to cry. Young
women were raped by guards and officials," he told the court.
The defence is expected to argue that Anfal was a legitimate
counter-insurgency operation against Kurdish separatist guerrillas who
sympathised with the Iranian side in the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-1988.
Saddam's defence counsel also challenged the legitimacy fo a court set up
under US tutelage, but Ameri -- a Shiite Arab with 25 years on the bench --
and his four fellow judges dismissed his argument.
Saddam clashed with the judge a number of times, while his cousin Ali Hassan
al-Majid -- who was nicknamed "Chemical Ali" because of his alleged fondness
for using poison gas -- also refused to plead on Monday.
The judge ordered that "innocent" pleas be recorded for both him and Saddam.
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.
The verdict for the Dujail trial is on October 16.
Byline:Jay Deshmukh
Date: 22 August 2006
BAGHDAD, Aug 21, 2006 (AFP) - The first witnesses were expected to testify
Tuesday on the second day of the genocide trial of ousted Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein, accused of overseeing the death of 182,000 Kurds.
The chief prosecutor of the Iraqi High Tribunal, which is trying Saddam and
six other co-defendants over a brutal 1988 crackdown against Kurds, said
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 of 1988, which sought to suppress
separatist sentiment among Kurds through mass slaughter.
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.
"If he says that a Iraqi woman was raped in my era and if he does not prove
it, I will hunt him for the rest of my life," Saddam thundered.
In his opening remarks Faroon gave details of the Anfal campaign in which it
is alleged that Iraqi forces used poison gas, air strikes and forced
evictions into brutal holding centres to depopulate broad swathes of Kurdish
land.
"I urge you to listen carefully to the details of these events... It is
difficult to fathom the barbarity of such acts," Faroon told the court.
He showed the court photographs of mass graves -- including one in which the
body of an infant child still suckling on a milk bottle was buried next to
his mother -- and detailed the eight stages of the Anfal campaign.
On February 22, 1988, the Iraqi air force allegedly began firing chemical
weapons into the Juwaid Valley outside the northern city of Sulaimaniyah.
This was followed up with an eight month campaign of terror, the court
heard.
"Women, children were transferred to detention centres made in advance.
Detainees suffered harshly. Camps had no basic services. Detainees were
exposed to torture, insults and non-potable water," Faroon said.
"Those who died were buried outside the camps by the detainees and later
animals were set free to dig up those graves, mostly in the Samawa desert.
"Women were put through psychological torture. Their infant babies were
separated from them. The babies and the mothers were allowed to cry. Young
women were raped by guards and officials," he told the court.
The defence is expected to argue that Anfal was a legitimate
counter-insurgency operation against Kurdish separatist guerrillas who
sympathised with the Iranian side in the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-1988.
Saddam's defence counsel also challenged the legitimacy fo a court set up
under US tutelage, but Ameri -- a Shiite Arab with 25 years on the bench --
and his four fellow judges dismissed his argument.
Saddam clashed with the judge a number of times, while his cousin Ali Hassan
al-Majid -- who was nicknamed "Chemical Ali" because of his alleged fondness
for using poison gas -- also refused to plead on Monday.
The judge ordered that "innocent" pleas be recorded for both him and Saddam.
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.
The verdict for the Dujail trial is on October 16.