BAGHDAD, Iraq - A new legal chapter opens Monday
for Saddam Hussein when the ousted Iraqi leader goes on trial for a second time,
charged with genocide and war crimes from his scorched-earth offensive against
Kurds nearly two decades ago.
The case against Saddam and six co-defendants is tied to the deaths of tens
of thousands of people during the Iraqi army's "Operation Anfal", Arabic for
"spoils of war" and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
A child walks past the
graves of the victims of the so-called Anfal campaign, where tens of
thousands of Kurds were killed in the north in the late 1980s, in the
village of Sewsenan in Sulaimaniya, north of Iraq, August 18, 2006. Saddam
Hussein, the ousted Iraqi president who is awaiting a verdict in his first
trial for crimes against humanity, will be in the dock again on Monday for
the "Anfal campaign". [Reuters] |
The 1987-88 crackdown was aimed at crushing independence-minded Kurdish
militias and clearing all Kurds from the northern region along the border with
Iran. Saddam accused the Kurds of helping Iran in its war with Iraq.
Kurdish survivors say many villages were razed and countless young men
disappeared.
They also accuse the army of using prohibited mustard gas and nerve agents,
but the trial does not deal with the most notorious gassing, the March 1988
attack on Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds. That incident will be
part of a separate investigation by the Iraqi High Tribunal.
More than 1,000 survivors and relatives of victims of the Anfal campaign,
demonstrated in the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah on Monday, demanding
death for Saddam.
"Yes, yes to Saddam trial," the demonstrators chanted.
Khadhija Salih, a housewife who lost five brothers and sisters in the Anfal
crackdown and herself spent a period in prison, said: "Today I will have my
justice as I will see Saddam in the court."
"It really pleases me to see him face justice," she said. "If I could, I
would have killed him myself with great pleasure."
The trial begins as Saddam and seven other co-defendants await verdicts, due
October 16, from a trial for their alleged involvement in the killings of more
than 148 Shiite Muslims from Dujail as punishment for an assassination attempt
on Saddam in the town in 1982.
Critics have decried the first trial's lengthy, sometimes chaotic
proceedings.
Human Rights Watch charged Friday that the Iraqi High Tribunal is incapable
of fairly and effectively trying Saddam and others on the Anfal charges "in
accordance with international standards and current international criminal law."
The New York-based group said the nine-month Dujail trial showed the court's
administration to be "chaotic and inadequate," and also complained that the
trial relied too heavily on anonymous witnesses. It said the court must "improve
its practices if it is to do justice."
The Dujail trial was marred by disorder, with Saddam repeatedly engaging in
arguments with the judges and then boycotting the proceedings. Defense teams
repeatedly walked out, prompting the appointment of replacements. Three defense
lawyers also were assassinated.
A U.S. official close to the tribunal defended its fairness Sunday.
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