Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Oh, What a Circus - The Trial of Saddam Hussain!

Iraq Solidarity Campaign | 19.10.2005 12:33 | Repression | Social Struggles

In the (16-23/6/2005) edition of the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram , the newspaper carried an article “Debates and Dilemmas” by one Baghdad correspondent Nermin Al-Mufty, who has described the trial of former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussain as a “diversionary tactic” by both the US and Baghdad administrations.




The reasons why Ms. Al-Mufty has drawn these conclusions are as she states: “The Iraqi government needs to draw attention away from its failure to provide security to the Iraqi people.”

This belief has been backed up by further information that was published in the British newspaper the Independent, which on 23/6/2005 published a report called the “state of the nation” and revealed that inside of Iraq only “78 percent of households in the country have an unreliable electricity supply: in Baghdad the figure rises to 92 per cent.”

Other points that were raised in the report included the fact that “more young people today are illiterate in Iraq than in previous generations,” and that “Almost a quarter of children between the ages of six months and five years suffer from malnutrition.”

Whilst any trial of Saddam Hussain will of course create a media frenzy around the globe, with the Iraqi government claiming that Saddam “could face up to 500 charges, but prosecutors will focus on 12 well-documented cases.” The fact that only “61 per cent of Iraqi households have access to a safe and stable drinking water supply”, with 28 per cent of this total experiencing daily problems with that supply, will undoubtedly go a miss among the frenzy.

Ms. Al-Mufty goes on to quote one human rights lawyer, who claims that: “The judges, investigators and their families were transferred to the Green Zone after one of the judges was killed.” The lawyer also claims that those involved in the trial are isolated and the newly established Iraqi Ministry of Justice, “has no relationship” with those prosecuting the former Iraqi dictator.

The Iraqi Women’s League, an organisation which was outlawed and persecuted under Saddam and who in the 1950’s had elected the first female cabinet minister in Iraqi history, once described the situation that women alone once faced at the hands of an occupying power - the British. “women suffered from the consequences of backwardness and dependency, and the cruelty of the mediaeval traditions that the “civilised” colonialists strove to maintain.”

The “new democracy” that appears to have been established and is being maintained by the USA, seems to include many of those same “mediaeval traditions” , which many do believe the trial will be used to help erase from peoples minds.

The most famous of those old traditions include the massacre and total humiliation of the people of Falluja, the distruction of ancient sites, the pictures of abuse at Abu Ghraib and those of Saddam in his under pants along with the physical, economic and emotional abyss that the Iraqi people have been thrown into at the hands of their “liberators”.

This is not even including the fact that “31 per cent of males over 15 are unemployed” and that only “37 per cent of urban households and only 4 per cent of rural ones have a sewage connection.”

At the end of the article by Nermin Al-Mufty, she demonstrates how opinion is divided upon the fate of the former Iraqi president but people are seeking justice for what occurred under the regime of Saddam Hussain. Though quite clearly, Iraq is in a situation where the welfare of its people needs to be made a higher priority, than a trial that could ultimately appear to be nothing more than a “diversionary tactic”.

By Hussein Al-alak
Chair,
The Iraq Solidarity Campaign

Iraq Solidarity Campaign
- Homepage: http://www.iraqsolidaritycampaign.blogspot.com

Comments

Display the following 4 comments

  1. Saddam on trial in a country where occupiers are given TOTAL IMMUNITY — twilight
  2. Deja Vu — Observer
  3. Hypocracy — Disagree anyone?
  4. Not a bad thing in itself — Zorro
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech