Swift Justice Urged for Saddam

Abdullah Hasan, a 22-year-old student in Baghdad, wanted justice against Saddam Hussein to be swift and the punishment severe.

Like many others throughout Iraq, and particularly in the village of Dijail, Hasan hung his head in disappointment after learning that the former Iraqi leader’s trial was delayed.

"It's an unsuccessful start, as we expected a harsher trial against this executioner,” he said. “He didn't give other people a chance of justice. He would issue death orders immediately, without going through the courts."

Saddam is on trial with seven of his top aides for crimes against humanity. They are accused of killing 143 people in Dijail, a mostly Shia village about 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, following an attempted assassination attempt in 1982.

The trial at the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal opened on October 19, but Saddam’s lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi successfully postponed proceedings until November 28 on the grounds that he needed more time to prepare.

Mohammed Nazhan, a 46-year-old farmer in Dijail, said, "It looks as if the court is strongly sympathising with the criminal Saddam and his fellow traitors.

"We don't accept that. They should understand how big the tragedy and material losses were for the people of Dijail.”

Nazhan still agreed with Mohammed Hassan, the mayor of Dijail who lost his father and other relatives in the massacre, but insists the trial must be fair in order that justice is served.

"Saddam’s trial should be a fair one, reflecting the new face of Iraq," said Hassan.

"It should be an impartial trial that restores the rights of hundreds of martyrs and their families and thousands of victims."

Iraqis were glued to coverage of the tribunal, which some in Iraq are calling the trial of the century. Rizgar Mohammed Amin, a Kurdish judge from Sulaimaniyah, is presiding.

“Right now I'm watching how this oppressor will be tried,” said Sayid Haydar Mohammed, a 24-year-old student whose father, uncle and three cousins were killed in Dijail. “I won't accept anything less than the death penalty.”

Prosecutors chose to try Saddam and his top aides for the Dijail massacre first, because they believe they have the strongest evidence for that case, including execution orders. In separate cases, they hope to try them later for other crimes including the chemical attack on Halabja in 1988.

Hussein al-Shahristani, deputy speaker of Iraq’s National Assembly, rejected a claim by Saddam’s lawyer that the government chose to try the Dijail case in order to incite sectarianism and divide Iraqis.

“This… won’t deceive the Iraqi people," said Shahristani, insisting the case was “thoroughly investigated” and the evidence “transparent and clear”.

"I hope he will be executed as many times over as the number of the martyrs who fell victim to his crimes,” he said.

Saddam is being tried along with his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, the former head of Iraqi intelligence; Taha Yasin Ramadan, former deputy prime minister; Awad Hamad al-Bandar, former chief of the revolutionary court; and four Baath party officials in Dijail: Ali Dayih, Mohammed al-Azawi, Abdullah Kazim al-Riwayyid and his son Mizhir al-Riwayyid.

All eight pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Muwafaq al-Rubaii, Iraq’s national security adviser, who had met the former Iraqi leader ahead of the trial, acclaimed the first day was a success.

"Today was a victory for the Iraqi people,” he said. “The trial was conducted in a just and positive way from the start. The judge was fair and unbiased.”

Prosecutor Jafar al-Musawi said Saddam, Ramadan and Tikriti planned the siege of Dijail, in which security forces, intelligence agents and Baathists arrested hundreds of residents. Nearly 400 were taken to a military camp in Samawa on the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

In addition to the mass arrest, torture and killing of Dijail residents, the government strangled the local economy by razing buildings and acres of orchards.

Hazim Oda, an official with the Shia party Dawa in Dijail, said, "The trial showed [too much respect] for a criminal like Saddam, who turned Dijail into a semi-arid land nearly empty of people.

"But we want to work for an Iraq in which law prevails and the rules are implemented in a fair and just way," he said.

Nasir Kadhim and Duraed Salman are IWPR trainee journalists in Iraq.