Saddam�s Execution Repudiated

Saddam�s execution repudiated all over the world

All rules of international law violated. Malcolm Smart, Director of the
Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International:

"Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and we
deplore the death penalty in this case. It is because we consider that
the trial was flawed in serious ways that it is more concerning that
the death penalty should be imposed. The independence and
impartiality of the court was impugned. There was political
interference. Three defense lawyers were murdered. Saddam himself
had no access to legal advice for a year." (BBC World, 30 December)

Human Rights Watch:

"The imposition of the death penalty - an inherently cruel and
inhumane punishment - in the wake of an unfair trial is
indefensible". (BBC World, 30 December)

The Brussels Tribunal:

�The Iraqi Higher Criminal Court that passed a death sentence on
President Saddam Hussein is grounded on illegality. Occupying
powers under international law are expressly prohibited from
changing the judicial structures of occupied states. Created by Paul
Bremer, the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court was never anything but a US-
orchestrated puppet court.�

Political reasons behind the execution

Vrede vzw ( a Belgian peace movement):

�It was a fake trial, not at all intended to judge Saddam�s crimes. His
execution was a political act. It had to be done quickly, because
Saddam Hussein stood symbol for part of the armed resistance. The
execution came at a moment that the number of US military killed is
nearing the 3,000 mark. More than ever, President Bush needs a
�success story� for his disastrous campaign in Iraq .�

StopUSA (a Belgian anti-war movement):

�In November 1532, the Inca king Atahualpa stood trial before the
Spanish conquistadores. He was sentenced to death and hanged in
August 1533. Among the accusations against him: he would have
been �cruel for his enemies�. Whatever that may have meant, in any
case the execution of Atahualpa has gone down in history not so
much because of the man�s supposed or real cruelty, but because of
the grotesque nature of this parody of justice. It won�t be different
with Saddam�s execution.�

Robert Fisk (Middle East journalist):

�His execution will go down - correctly - as an American affair and
time will add its false but lasting gloss to all this - that the West
destroyed an Arab leader who no longer obeyed his orders from
Washington, that, for all his wrongdoing Saddam died a "martyr" to
the will of the new "Crusaders". (The Independent, 30 December)

The International Action Center ( US ):

�This punishment has nothing to do with the alleged crimes of the
Iraqi leader nor is it part of an historical judgment of his role. It is
the act of a conquering power against a nation that is occupied
against the will of the vast majority of its people.�

Professor Jose Maria Sison (the Philippines ):

�Bush depicts the hanging of Saddam as a part of building
democracy in Iraq and even in the entire Middle East . But he is
clearly lying in view of the so many authoritarian regimes (including
monarchic and theocratic ones) in the region with which the US has
good relations. The brutal US occupation of Iraq has nothing to do
with democracy. What is important to the US is servility to the rule
and profit-making of US monopoly interests.�

Cebrapaz ( Brazilian Center of Solidarity with the Peoples and
Struggle for Peace):

"The president of the USA , who ordered this act, enters in history as
the greatest enemy of the peace and the greatest terrorist of all time.
The world will only know better days, of peace and justice, when
imperialism and its war politics are defeated."

Robert Fisk writes:

�Nor was the Pentagon unaware of the extent of Iraqi use of chemical
weapons. In 1988, for example, Saddam gave his personal
permission for Lt-Col Rick Francona, a US defense intelligence officer
- one of 60 American officers who were secretly providing members
of the Iraqi general staff with detailed information on Iranian
deployments, tactical planning and bomb damage assessments - to
visit the Fao peninsula after Iraqi forces had recaptured the town
from the Iranians. He reported back to Washington that the Iraqis
had used chemical weapons to achieve their victory. The senior
defense intelligence officer at the time, Col Walter Lang, later said
that the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis "was not a matter
of deep strategic concern".

We still don't know - and with Saddam's execution we will probably
never know - the extent of US credits to Iraq, which began in 1982.
The initial tranche, the sum of which was spent on the purchase of
American weapons from Jordan and Kuwait, came to $300m. By
1987, Saddam was being promised $1bn in credit. By 1990, just
before Saddam's invasion of Kuwait, annual trade between Iraq and
the US had grown to $3.5bn a year. Pressed by Saddam's foreign
minister, Tariq Aziz, to continue US credits, James Baker then
Secretary of State, but the same James Baker who has just produced
a report intended to drag George Bush from the catastrophe of
present- day Iraq - pushed for new guarantees worth $1bn from the
US.�

Please bear all of this in mind, when repeating the official mantra
about Saddam�s atrocities. It is not possible to condone any one�s
crimes against humanity, there are no excuses for knowingly
supporting murderers and so-called �war criminals�, and obviously
none of these observers is making a statement of support for
Saddam�s regime. The important point to push home to all who
supported his trial and preordained execution is that Saddam was
once used by America and its ally Britain; that his use of chemical
agents was common knowledge at the time; that he was once a
valued trading partner and strategic contact. The extent of the
West�s hypocrisy and criminal negligence is breathtaking.

In the light of the recently publicized images of the hanging taken by
an anonymous witness, recorded on his mobile phone, (not the officially
sanctioned snuff movie) I believe the demise of Saddam will eventually
bring down the current US sponsored Iraqi government. Nothing at all
has been gained by his killing, in fact, it will turn out to be a �home
goal; like so many others in the US� history of bullying the world.


Edited by Duende