WOULD SADDAM’S EXECUTION SOLVE THE IRAQI CONFLICT?
By: Ayoub Bazzaz (UK).

The pronounced death penalty verdict by the special Iraqi tribunal against the former Iraqi president “Saddam Hussein” and two of his assistants, despite relieving his persistent political opponents, the Shiite and Kurds, has already fueled millions of Iraqis to fight each other. Although the execution verdict was not unexpected, it implies an extremely bad sign for the future of Iraq as well as to the stability of the Mediterranean countries if it is carried out.

The present Iraqi puppet rulers, without doubt, are not patriotic but rather partial due to their history and links with the US invaders. These rulers absolutely are rejected by most Iraqis from inside and exiles. Saddam’s enemies have always had intention to rip him off in an inhumane way, if they could. Their brutal intentions, although condemned worldwide, are likely to be carried out in a country like Iraq under the new Shiite and Kurd tyrants due to the imposed unfair U.S. policy under the false pretext of bringing democracy.

To verify the legitimacy of the execution verdict against Saddam Hussein for a fair judgment, a few fundamental political, legal and religious foundations clearly exist to dispute the credibility and legitimacy of the court.

1) For over a year, the Special Tribunal has been judging Saddam and co-defendants upon no legal basis. All judges (two Kurds and two Shiites) were considered as Saddam’s enemies and were therefore neither neutral nor competent to represent a national court, despite its establishment by the invaders;

2) Saddam Hussein who has been captured and detained by the U.S. special troops in December 2003 was already maltreated, tortured and physically abused by his own enemies, the Shiite and Kurds during his captivity inside Iraq. These enemies were seeking revenge. According to the Geneva Convention of the “Human Rights” any prisoner of war (POW) should not be put to trial by his own enemies but by an independent team and in a neutral country. As an example, “Slobodan Milosevic”, the former Serbian dictator and a POW was judged by non-Serbian judges and in a neutral country, the Netherlands;

3) Both the puppet president Mr. Jalal Talabani, and the new Iraqi ruler, were appointed by the U.S. administration after a fake election and fabricated referendum. None of them represent national symbols of the country; hence, they have no legitimacy or credibility to try Saddam Hussein. Consequently, their decisions or any verdict being issued by such a court are questionable and rejected by Iraqis, as their country is still illegally occupied by foreign troops;

4) The so-called ‘Saddam crimes against humanity’ were in line with the President’s central responsibility status as leader of Iraq to control some of his own outlawed people who had raised weaponq to assassinate him on several occasions. Any leader in any democratic or developing country would have done the same to punish the rebels, if not worse. In the latter part of the 1970s, as an example, the King of Saudi Arabia had killed over 500 Muslims during the Islamic pilgrimage in Mecca, with the aid of French intelligence without even being questioned for such mass killings. There are more examples to support the legality of Saddam’s action to punish his own outlawed people i.e. in the failed Dujail’s assassination attempt;

5) The illegality and illegitimacy of Saddam’s trial can be further demonstrated by the assassination of his attorney general and of four lawyers by the Shiite-Kurdish rulers throughout a year trial sessions to prevent Saddam and co-defendants to be fairly defended;

6) According to Islamic Law (Al-Sharee’a) no execution should be carried out against men over sixty or against women at any age except for certain major crimes/sins. Saddam’s age now is nearly 70 in which case the execution should be forbidden by Islamic Law, unless the present Iraqi rulers deny the Islamic Sharee’a and are not real Muslims.

7) There seems to be international interest in Saddam’s execution to bury the roles of some American and Western personnel. His execution will wipe up and may close curtains on their dirty involvement in Saddam’s policy throughout his era. The dismissal of Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. defense secretary might be due to his role in selling chemical weapons to Saddam to fuel the Iraqi-Iranian war in the early 1980s and his obvious role in abusing the Iraqi prisoners in Abu-Ghraib and Basra prisons.

The appeal has already been turned down due to the influence of the Shiite-Kurdish regime which is unlimitedly backed by the U.S. administration. Therefore, the unfair conditions are unlikely to terminate. Such obvious offences against Saddam are counted as ruthless breaches of human right laws by the present American agents, the new governors of Iraq. While these ordeals went on against Saddam Hussein the Western countries remained silent.

Since the invasion of Iraq on 20th March 2003 to-date, the death tolls amongst the Iraqis has already exceeded ¾ million, with thousands of wounded civilian victims. The so-called establishment of “American democracy” in Iraq is absolutely refused by the Iraqis if it is built over the corpses of millions of Iraqi victims. The officially announced death tolls among the American soldiers, beside the wounded and disabled ones, has already exceeded 3000. Both George Bush and his allied counterparts are responsible for the bloodsheds of these Iraqi civilians as well as for the deaths of their own soldiers. Far more Iraqis have been killed under the occupation than during Saddam’s era. If Saddam Hussein has to be judged for his so-called ‘mass killings of Iraqis’ during his 35 years ruling, then George Bush himself as well as his allied counterparts should also be judged for similar crimes.

The history of the American-Western double agent Jalal Talabani, an ex-war criminal, and his involvement in mass killings of Iraqi soldiers and officers since 1961 to-date is well documented by Iraqis. Many innocent Iraqi people in both Mosul, a Sunni Arab province in March and in July 1959 in Kerkuk, a Turkmen province, were killed, hanged on trees or on electric post and/or towed by Jalal Talabani himself and gangsters together with his communist comrades upon Mustafa Barzani’s commands. Jalal Talabani, should have been put on trial for these inhumane crimes, but instead of being judged, he has been rewarded by the U.S. administration who appointed him as the President of Iraq!

Moreover, the present Iraqi Shiite governors i.e. Nouri Juwad Al-Maliky as well as the Shiite scholars are graduates of Khumaini’s school, they are completely inspired by the Iranians with Iranian ancestry and Persian as second language. Some even have Indian roots that always proved to have no loyalty to Iraq but hatred to Sunni Iraqis. These Shiite traitors together with their partners the Kurdish leaders who are the most opportunist politicians ever, had threatened the unity of the Iraqi nation by their intentions to divide the country. The Shiites abhor the USA and the West, their pretended co-operation with the U.S. administration and with the Kurds is just a strategy to link the partitioned Iraq to Iran to establish a stronger Shiite union. Such a Shiite policy is really endangering the stability of Iraq which could explode into a severe threat to the whole region in the near future. Their treacherous policy is betraying most Iraqis, particularly the Arab Sunni Muslims as well as the Iraqi Turkmens and jeopardizing the stability of the region by dividing the country despite the strong opposition of the majority of the Iraqis. The invaders, by backing Iraq’s enemies without limit, are totally liable for causing such partition which contradicts their declared claims in establishing ‘democracy’ in Iraq! At this state, nobody can really explain the real intentions of the U.S. in supporting the Iraqi Shiites, unless it is to repeat Khumainy’s regime in Iraq. The U.S. administration, therefore, is gradually gaining more enemies worldwide who are losing faith in its policy. Iraqis can manage well on their own, without such American fake democracy and without federalism.

Saddam’s massacres against Arab Shias in Southern Iraq and Kurds in the North were only the consequence of the self-defense against his real enemies who raised weapons against him and challenged to topple him and the Ba’ath regime. No president on earth, not even George Bush himself is expected to reward his enemies with bouquets of flowers for the offences they have committed. The massacre of Halabja in March 1988 was again, a re-action of Saddam’s regime to punish Jalal Talabani whose militia jeopardized the sovereignty of Iraq by allowing the Iranian army to invade Iraq from the northern borders. Hence, Talabani himself is guilty and liable for the Halabja victims. The number of Halabia’s chemical raid victims did not exceed 50 in total despite the exaggerated high figures given by the Kurdish media which was merely for political reasons. No independent reliable source has ever confirmed such an unbelievably high number of Kurdish victims, but the West blindly believed in those greatly exaggerated and unverified figures and granted sympathy to Kurdish leadership.

While Saddam implemented a tough policy, throughout his 35 years ruling, against these two enemies and behaved as a dominant nationalist and a tyrant, he was honest to all Iraqis who showed him support. He was a true Iraqi patriot and was always sincere and loyal to his country. He had also succeeded in getting rid of almost all the spies, agents, thieves and traitors who unfortunately are abundant in Iraq since the U.S.-U.K. invasion and occupation. He was also a real gentleman for other Arab nations whose leaders have betrayed him in at the last minute. Saddam, lately, had changed his policy towards the west by adopting a rather soft line, but sounds were a bit late!

The execution verdict is likely to ignite a bloody civil war between the Shiites, who co-operate with the U.S. administration and who are close allies of the Iranian regime and could lead to further blood baths. The Ba'ath party in Iraq and Saddam’s supporters could launch backslash revenge to hunt down the members of the present regime and the country will be turned into a real battlefield. This would destabilize the whole region which in turn would threat the interests of the West in the region.

As for the announcements from the “European Union Council”, “Human Rights Watch” and Tony Blair, these should be practical and be implemented if they are serious.

George Bush had already disclosed his real brutal face by showing his personal hatred and welcoming the death penalty verdict against Saddam Hussein. He, as we all had expected has proven again to be a real enemy of humanity, particularly of the Iraqis. George Bush and others should remember that in any real democratic country no death penalty should be carried out.

While No. 10 Downing Street had reminded Iraq on 6th November of its opposition to the death penalty and claimed respect to the sovereignty of Iraq, such declarations remain fully dubious announcements with a double-dealer meaning. Simply, because it gives a green light to the present Iraqi leaders to carry out the execution sentence while Iraq is occupied and does not enjoy sovereignty. Furthermore, all Islamic and Arab country rulers would also be liable if Saddam Hussein were to end in such an unjust and humiliating way. They should be reminded that if they allow Saddam Hussein to be executed following a judgment pronounced by an “illegitimate Tribunal appointed by the U.S. in occupied Iraq”, they will loose all respect, not only from the entire Iraqi nation but also from the West.

Saddam Hussein may have been a dictator, but he was a sincere, proud and a true Iraqi patriot, who never bowed in front of the enemies of Iraq. For opposing the Anglo-American-Zionist enemies of Iraq he will always be considered a hero in the eyes of millions of Iraqis and Arabs. If he is executed, he will be considered a martyr to millions of people all over the Middle-East and his death will fuel an endless civil war inside Iraq for which the U.S, the U.K. and Australia will be liable for ever.

Saddam Hussein, as an ex-ruler of Iraq may have been a tyrant during his 35 years era, but he had to rule with an iron hand and be a solid leader against some of his own people. Such tough policies probably were the consequence of the unforgivable violation of policies by Shiites and Kurds. He had to be a strong leader to face the enemies of Iraq who were seeking to weaken and destabilize Iraq in order to achieve their goals in the region. Saddam Hussein was made to be as he was. Those who made him to behave as they wanted should be held responsible for his mistakes and his brutality. In such circumstances, Saddam Hussein, as he stands guilty for ‘crimes against humanity’, may not be entirely guilty, but rather a victim while others is not totally innocent…

If Saddam’s execution does guarantee the peace and justice for Iraq and in the Middle East then it is welcome, but it will not. On the contrary, it will create further bloodsheds which will destabilize the whole region and create millions of new enemies to the West and the USA.

The U.S. administration is already blamed by the whole world for supporting the new Iraqi tyrants, the Shiites and the Kurds, and for the chaos they have caused in the country.

We urge all the human rights organizations to interfere and stop the violations and the massacres which will likely occur sooner or later in Iraq if Saddam Hussein’s execution verdict proceeds. We also ask all peace loving people to seek real justice and condemn the U.S.-UK illegal occupation of Iraq and the illegal actions against Saddam Hussein by the ‘Iraqi puppet leaders’. The time has come for ALL FOREIGN TROOPS to leave Iraq and leave Iraq to the Iraqis.