Saddam Hussein Executed

[Rasputin]

Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at a secure facility in northern Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT). A representative of the prime minister and a Sunni Muslim cleric were present.

Footage of him being led to the gallows was later shown on Iraqi state TV.

Two co-defendants, Saddam Hussein's half-brother and a former chief judge, are to be executed at a later date.

All three were sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November after a year-long trial over the 1982 killings of 148 Shias in the town of Dujail.

Holding Koran

A small group of Iraqis witnessed the execution inside a building at an Iraqi compound known by the Americans as Camp Justice, a secure facility in the northern Baghdad suburb of Khadimeya.

They watched as a judge read out the sentence to Saddam Hussein. The former Iraqi leader was carrying a copy of the Koran and asked for it to be given to a friend.

Footage broadcast later on Iraqi state TV showed a subdued Saddam Hussein being led to gallows by a group of masked men.

He was dressed in a white shirt and dark overcoat, rather than prison garb.

Saddam Hussein was led up onto the gallows platform and a dark piece of cloth placed around his neck, followed by the noose.

When the hangman stepped forward to put the hood over his head, Saddam Hussein made it clear he wanted to die without it.

The hanging itself was not broadcast.

The execution procedure took just a few minutes.

Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie, who witnessed the execution, told the BBC that the former leader went to the gallows quietly:

"We took him to the gallows and he was saying some few slogans. He was very, very, very, broken."

In other developments:



US troops and Iraqi security forces are put on high alert and security is increased at US embassies around the world

A bomb explodes in a market place in the mainly Shia city of Kufa, in southern Iraq, killing at least 17 people and injuring 25

The US military says that a US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Friday and three marines died from wounds suffered in combat in Iraq's western Anbar province

'End of a dark period'

News of Saddam Hussein's execution was broadcast on state-run Iraqiya television, as patriotic music and images of national monuments were played out.

It initially said Saddam Hussein was hanged first, followed by Barzan and then Bandar. However, Iraqi national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, later said only Saddam Hussein was hanged.

"We wanted him to be executed on a special day," Mr al-Rubaie told Iraqiya, adding that Saddam Hussein "totally surrendered" and did not resist.

Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar are to be executed some time after the Eid festival ends next week, he said.

Other Arab TV stations aired live footage of the sunrise over Baghdad's Firdous Square, where US Marines pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein, after he was deposed in April 2003.

There were jubilant scenes in the Baghdad Shia stronghold of Sadr City, with people dancing in the streets and sounding their car horns.

The BBC's Peter Greste in Baghdad says Shias have generally welcomed Saddam Hussein's death and hailed the execution as justice for the suffering endured under his leadership.

But Saddam's own Sunni tribesman were angered by his treatment and may well protest once more, our correspondent adds.

'Held to account'

US President George W Bush hailed the execution as "an important milestone" on the road to building an Iraqi democracy, but warned it would not end the deadly violence there.

He said: "It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial.

"It is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror."

UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett welcomed the fact that Saddam Hussein had been tried by an Iraqi court "for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed" and said "he has now been held to account".

France called on Iraqis to "look towards the future and work towards reconciliation and national unity".

[Rasputin]

Saddam's execution will end an ugly era

Three years ago, U.S. troops found him in a spider hole, a once proud dictator reduced to a cowering fugitive.
The long fall from power is nearly over.

U.S. officials transferred Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq, to Iraqi custody on Friday, according to news reports.

The move was seen by some as an indication that Saddam could be hanged as early as today, although senior Iraqi officials said Cabinet members were trying to delay the execution for at least a month, Reuters reported.

Still, amid the conflicting reports, the strongest indication that the hanging was imminent came from an Iraqi judge who said the execution would come no later than today.

"All the measures have been done," Munir Haddad, a judge authorized to attend the hanging, said, according to the Associated Press. "There is no reason for delays."

Saddam, sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Shiites in 1982, lost his appeal earlier this week.

Although he was convicted for the murders of fewer than 200, he killed hundreds of thousands of people during his regime, according to estimates by the United Nations and Amnesty International.

As the U.S. administration shifted its emphasis from Afghanistan to Iraq, he became the central figure in the war on terror, although caches of WMD, the stated motivation for the conflict, never materialized.

A reprehensible tyrant whose collapse inspired joy among the people he once ruled, Saddam continued to display his arrogance during the trial, insisting that he was still the ruler of his now battle-scarred nation.

Now he faces the ultimate punishment, and regardless of where people stand on capital punishment, one thing is certain: The world will be rid of the man who led one of the most brutal states in history.

[Rasputin]

Baghdad, Dec. 30 (AP): Saddam Hussein, among the world's most brutal dictators, struggled briefly as American military guards handed him over to Iraqi executioners. But as his final moments approached, he grew calm. Dressed in a black coat and trousers, he clutched a Quran as he was led to the gallows, and in one final moment of defiance, refused to have a hood pulled over his head.

After a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran, Saddam was executed before sunrise on Saturday.

Within hours of his death, a bomb planted aboard a minibus exploded in a fish market south of Baghdad, killing 17 people, said Haidr Nahi, service director of the al-Furat al-Awssat Hospital. Some 26 others were wounded in the explsoion in Kufa, a Shiite town 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of the Iraqi capital.

A man whose testimony led to Saddam's conviction and execution said he was shown the body because ``everybody wanted to make sure that he was really executed.''

``Now, he is in the garbage of history,'' said Jawad Abdul-Aziz, who lost his father, three brothers and 222 cousins in the reprisal killings that followed a botched 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the Shiite town of Dujail.

In Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, hundreds of people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate his death. The government did not impose a round-the-clock curfew as it did last month when Saddam was convicted to thwart any surge in retaliatory violence.

It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. Presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

The execution took place during the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 108.

U.S. President George W. Bush said in a statement issued from his ranch in Texas that bringing Saddam to justice ``is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror.''

He said that the execution marks the ``end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops'' and cautioned that Saddam's death will not halt the violence in Iraq.

Ali Hamza, a 30-year-old university professor, said he went outside to shoot his gun into the air after he heard the news.

``Now all the victims' families will be happy because Saddam got his just sentence,'' said Hamza, who lives in Diwaniyah, a Shiite town 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

But people in the Sunni-dominated city of Tikrit, once a power base of Saddam, lamented his death.

``The President, the leader Saddam Hussein is a martyr and God will put him along with other martyrs. Do not be sad nor complain because he has died the death of a holy warrior,'' said Sheik Yahya al-Attawi, a cleric at the Saddam Big Mosque.

Police blocked the entrances to Tikrit and said nobody was allowed to leave or enter the city for four days. Despite the security precaution, gunmen took into the street of Tikrit in spite of the curfew carrying picture of Saddam and shooting into the air and calling for vengeance on Saddam's execution.

Security forces also set up roadblocks at the entrance to another Sunni stronghold, Samarra.

Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were not hanged along with their former leader as originally planned. Officials wanted to reserve the occasion for Saddam alone.

We wanted him to be executed on a special day,'' National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told state-run Iraqiya TV.

Sami al-Askari, the Political Adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, provided The Associated Press with some details of his handover to Iraqi authorities and his execution. He said Saddam initially resisted when he was taken by Iraqi guards but was composed in his final moments.

He said Saddam was clad in a black suit, hat and shoes, rather than prison garb. His hat was removed shortly before the noose was slipped around his neck.

Shortly before the execution, Saddam was asked if he wanted to say something.

``No I don't want to,'' al-Askari, who was present at the execution, quoted Saddam as saying. Saddam repeated a prayer after a Sunni Muslim cleric who was present.

``Saddam later was taken to the gallows and refused to have his head covered with a hood,'' al-Askari said. ``Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: 'God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab.'''

Iraqi state television showed footage of guards in ski masks placing a noose around Saddam's neck. Saddam appears calm as he stands on the metal framework of the gallows. The footage cuts off just before the execution.

Saddam was executed at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, al-Askari said. During his regime, Saddam had numerous dissidents executed in the facility, located in a neighborhood that is home to the Iraqi capital's most important Shiite shine _ the Imam Kazim shrine.

Al-Askari said the government had not decided what to do with Saddam's body.

``He did not ask for anything. He was carrying a Quran and said: 'I want this Quran to be given to this person,' a man he called Bander,'' he said. Al-Rubaie said he did not know who Bander was.

The Iraqi Prime Minister's office released a statement that said Saddam's execution was a ``strong lesson'' to ruthless leaders who commit crimes against their own people.

``We strongly reject considering Saddam as a representative of any sect in Iraq because the tyrant only represented his evil soul,'' the statement said. ``The door is still open for those whose hands are not tainted with the blood of innocent people to take part in the political process and work on rebuilding Iraq.''

The execution came 56 days after a court convicted Saddam and sentenced him to death for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from Dujail. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal Monday and ordered him executed within 30 days.

A U.S. judge on Friday refused to stop Saddam's execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge.

U.S. troops cheered as news of Saddam's execution appeared on television at the mess hall at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad. But some soldiers expressed doubt that Saddam's death would be a significant turning point for Iraq.

``First it was weapons of mass destruction. Then when there were none, it was that we had to find Saddam. We did that, but then it was that we had to put him on trial,'' said Spc. Thomas Sheck, 25, who is on his second tour in Iraq. ``So now, what will be the next story they tell us to keep us over here?''

The execution was carried out around the start of EiInternational Justice Program.

The hanging of Saddam, who was ruthless in ordering executions of his opponents, will keep other Iraqis from pursuing justice against the ousted leader.

At his death, he was in the midst of a second trial, charged with genocide and other crimes for a 1987-88 military crackdown that killed an estimated 180,000 Kurds in northern Iraq. Experts said the trial of his co-defendants was likely to continue despite his execution.

Many people in Iraq's Shiite majority were eager to see the execution of a man whose Sunni Arab-dominated regime oppressed them and Kurds.

Before the hanging, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Friday called Saddam's execution ``God's gift to Iraqis.''

In a farewell message to Iraqis posted Wednesday on the Internet, Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of the struggle against the U.S. ``Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs,'' he said.

One of Saddam's lawyers, Issam Ghazzawi, said the letter was written by Saddam on Nov. 5, the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal in the Dujail killings.

Najeeb al-Nauimi, a member of Saddam's legal team, said U.S. authorities maintained physical custody of Saddam until the execution to prevent him being humiliated publicly or his corpse being mutilated, as has happened to previous Iraqi leaders deposed by force. He said they didn't want anything to happen to further inflame Sunni Arabs.

``This is the end of an era in Iraq,'' al-Nauimi said from Doha, Qatar. ``The Baath regime ruled for 35 years. Saddam was vice president or president of Iraq during those years. For Iraqis, he will be very well remembered. Like a martyr, he died for the sake of his country.''

Iraq's death penalty was suspended by the U.S. military after it toppled Saddam in 2003, but the new Iraqi Government reinstated it two years later, saying executions would deter criminals.

Saddam's own regime used executions and extrajudicial killings as a tool of political repression, both to eliminate real or suspected political opponents and to maintain a reign of terror.

In the months after he seized power on July 16, 1979, he had hundreds of members of his own party and army officers slain. In 1996, he ordered the slaying of two sons-in-law who had defected to Jordan but returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety.

Saddam built Iraq into a one of the Arab world's most modern societies, but then plunged the country into an eight-year war with neighboring Iran that killed hundreds of thousands of people on both sides and wrecked Iraq's economy.

When the U.S. invaded in 2003, Iraqis had been transformed from among the region's most prosperous people to some of its most impoverished.

[Rasputin]

Celebrations break out after Hussein's hanging

(CNN) -- A witness to Saddam Hussein's execution in Baghdad said that celebrations broke out after the former dictator died, and that there was "dancing around the body."

"Saddam's body is in front me," said an official in the prime minister's office when CNN telephoned. "It's over."

In the background, Shiite chanting could be heard. When asked about the chanting, the official said "These are employees of the prime minister's office and government chanting in celebration."

Video showed Iraqis celebrating in the streets of Najaf, a Shiite holy city.

The execution took place shortly after 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told Iraqi television.

A power outage delayed the spread of the news to Iraqi citizens. But as word got out, gunfire broke out in the capital's streets. It was unclear whether the shooting was celebratory in nature.

Temperatures hovered around freezing hours after the hanging at the start of a Muslim holiday, and CNN correspondents reported relatively few Iraqis on the streets of Baghdad.

Feisal Istrabadi, Iraq's U.N. ambassador, told CNN the execution was "a very solemn moment for me."

"I can understand why some of my compatriots may be cheering. I have friends whose particular people I can think of who have lost 10, 15, 20 members of their family, more," Istrabadi said.

"But for me, it's a moment really of remembrance of the victims of Saddam Hussein."

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki did not attend the execution, according to an adviser to the prime minister interviewed on state television. Al-Maliki is a member of Iraq's Shiite majority, which was oppressed during Hussein's reign.

"Let us turn over this dark page of Iraqi history and let us look forward to building Iraq together," al-Maliki said after the execution.

The nation has been plagued by violence since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Hussein in 2003, and sectarian bloodshed escalated this year after the February bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra.

The Baath Party, the political movement that ruled Iraq during the Hussein era, warned this week that there would be "grave consequences" if Hussein were executed.

Saying it would hold the United States responsible, a message appeared on albasrah.net Tuesday that read: "The Baath and the resistance are determined to retaliate in all ways and all places that hurt America and its interests if it commits this crime."

The largely Sunni-Arab Baathists said they also would retaliate against members of the Iraqi High Tribunal.

'End of an era'
Rubaie said the execution was videotaped and photographed extensively from the time Hussein was transferred from U.S. to Iraqi custody until he was dead. State television reported that those images will be distributed to the media.

"This dark page has been turned over," Rubaie said. "Saddam is gone. Today Iraq is an Iraq for all the Iraqis, and all the Iraqis are looking forward. ... The [Hussein] era has gone forever."

"He was a broken man," he said. "He was afraid. You could see fear in his face."

Vali Nasr of the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations told CNN that Hussein's death marked "the end of an era."

Nasr and another Iraq expert, John Alterman of the U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the big question now is: "How do you put Iraq back together?"

Nasr said Hussein's death threatens to deepen the divide between Shiites and Sunnis because Hussein represents the last time the minority Sunnis held power in Iraq.

Nasr cited speculation that some Kurds are disappointed Hussein would not stand trial for crimes against them.

In Crawford, Texas, President Bush welcomed the news of the execution.

"Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself," he said.

[Rasputin]

'Criminal Saddam' Hanged At Dawn

WASHINGTON - Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq who came to be known as the Butcher of Baghdad, was hanged at dawn today in Baghdad for crimes against humanity committed during a 24-year reign of brutality that ended with the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The 69-year-old former president was executed at about 6 a.m. in Iraq, marking a violent end to a man notorious for massacring thousands of his people.

Al-Arabiya and al-Hurra, the U.S.-funded outlet in Iraq, first reported the hanging. Formal announcements weremade minutes later on state-run Iraqiya television and by the office of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister.

"The execution of Saddam Hussein is complete," read a headline on state television, which heralded the death by playing national songs and broadcasting verses from the Koran. "Criminal Saddam was hanged to death."

In his final moments, Saddam was to be handed a "red card," a symbolic death order given to the condemned introduced by his regime.

Saddam's execution was followed immediately by that of his half-brother Barzan Hall al-Tikriti, former head of intelligence, and his former chief judge, Awad al-Bandar.

CNN reported that Iraqis responded to news of the execution with celebratory gunfire.

Iraqi state television said the hanginghad been recorded by still photographs and videotape, and images of the dead Saddam would be aired to confirmhis death.

Arab television reported that Shiite witnesses to the execution sang and danced in celebration around Saddam, a Sunni, following the hanging.

Saddam was found guilty and sentenced to death on Nov. 5 for ordering the execution in 1982 of 148 Shiites in Dujail after a botched assassination attempt.

His 13-month trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal was one of the most highly publicized since the Nuremberg trials after the Second World War.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld the verdict and sentence on Tuesday and ordered the hanging to be carried out within 30 days.

The hasty arrangement of his execution caught even Bush administration officials off guard.

Although the precise timing of Saddam's execution remained uncertain for much of the past 24 hours, the outcome was not.

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, had approved an execution order yesterday after several hours of intense consultations with Jalal Talabani, the President, and U.S. authorities. The death warrant ended any chance of a last-minute reprieve for Saddamby Iraqi leaders.

"There is no review or delay in implementing the execution verdict against Saddam," Mr. Maliki said. "Anyone who rejects the execution of Saddam is undermining the martyrs of Iraq and their dignity. Nobody can overrule the execution sentence issued against Saddam."

The execution followed a day of high suspense in Baghdad and Washington as Iraqi government officials rushed to complete preparations.

The central drama surrounded the timing -- whether the start today of Eid-al Adha, a four-day religious holiday, might force a postponement in carrying out the death sentence until next week.

[Rasputin]

Sami al-Askari, a political ally of Mr. Nouri, had said the Eid could complicate the execution if such details as the location of the gallows and disposition of Saddam's body were not settled.

Some interpretations of Iraqi law suggest executions are forbidden during such festivals, which lent a sense of urgency to deliberations about when to carry out the execution.

"If it's not [Saturday], it will be after Eid," Mr. Askari said.

Early today in Iraq, officials with the country's Shiite-dominated government had decided to carry out the execution before the holiday festivities began.

One official said Saddam's death would give war-weary Iraqis -- particularly Kurds and Shiites who suffered most under his regime-- one reason to celebrate.

"All the measures have been done. There is no reason for delay," said Munir Haddad, an Iraqi judge who was to witness the hanging.

Worshippers at Friday prayers in the Shiite holy city of Najaf heard Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji describe the pending execution as "God's gift to Iraqis."

"Oh God, you know what Saddam has done," he said. "He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighbouring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam."

Saddam's lawyers had made a late appeal yesterday, asking a U.S. court to spare their client by ordering the U.S. military not to turn him over to Iraqi authorities.

They filed a 21-page request in U.S. District Court in Washington, arguing he could not be executed because of continuing civil proceedings against him.

Saddam had not received proper notification of those proceedings, his lawyers argued.

"To protect those rights, defendant Saddam Hussein requests an order of this court providing a stay of his execution until further notice of this court," wrote Nicholas Gilman.

U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted the lawyers last night, but quickly ruled against the former president. She said U.S. courts had no jurisdiction over Iraq's justice system.

With Iraq already teetering on the brink of all-out civil war, the news of Saddam's death triggered fears of a backlash by Sunni insurgents and former Baathists loyal to the ex-president.

The Iraqi government did not publicize the location of the hanging and did not invite the media to witness it.

Having found no weapons of mass destruction and with the Iraqi government struggling to exert authority, Saddam's ouster, capture and conviction remains the Bush administration's most notable achievement since the war began. Mr. Bush remained out of the public eye yesterday at his ranch in Crawford, Tex.

"Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial -- the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime," the White House said in a statement.

Earlier this week, White House aides there leaked details about the impending execution and said Mr. Bush was receiving regular updates on the status of Iraqi government deliberations.

There has been little evidence of sympathy for the man who ruled Iraq with an iron fist from 1979 to 2003. No major insurgent group of sectarian militia in Iraq, even those operated by Saddam's fellow Sunnis, publicly denounced the planned execution.
Even after his death, Saddam may still be tried on charges of using chemical weapons to massacre about 50,000 Kurds in March, 1988.

A third trial had been planned over the repression of a Shiite uprising in 1991, in which thousands more died.

Saddam received two of his half brothers on Thursday and was said to have given them his personal belongings and a copy of his will.

The Associated Press reported that one of Saddam's daughters, living in Amman, was not allowed to see her father before the hanging.

Saddam's daughter told Reuters she wanted her father's body buried in Yemen. "Iraq is liberated and it can be reburied in Iraq."

[Rasputin]

Saturday, December 30, 2006 (Tehran):


There was little sympathy in Iran for the fate of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his two co-defendants, executed in Baghdad on Saturday.

"Saddam was a dictator, he committed many crimes and killed our young people and invaded our country," said Parvin Hashemi, a local resident in Tehran.

"Anyone in the world who kills people and oppresses them must be executed wherever they are," another resident said.

"I am happy to hear this terrorist is executed".

The two countries were at war for eight years after Saddam sent Iraqi forces to invade in 1979, a war that killed tens of thousands on both sides.

[Rasputin]

محمد علي حسيني، سخنگوي امورخارجه در خصوص اعدام صدام اظهار داشت: اجراي حكم دادگاه صدام موجب خرسندي هزاران تن از خانواده*هاي قربانيان عراقي، ايراني و كويتي گرديد.

وي تاكيد كرد:* صدام پرونده*اي سراسر تاريك و ظالمانه داشت و اعمال ده*ها جنايت، قتل، كشتار نسبت به ملت*هاي مظلوم و بيگناه عراق، ايران و كويت تنها گوشه*اي از اين پرونده است.

سيد محمدعلي حسيني بااشاره به ضرورت هوشياري همگان تصريح كرد: مجازات جنايتكاران، نبايد دستاويز بدخواهان قرار گرفته و منجر به سوء استفاه و بروز حساسيت*هاي مذهبي و اختلافات فرقه*يي گردد.

سخنگوي وزارت امور خارجه در مورد وضعيت پرونده*ي جنايات رژيم صدام عليه جمهوري اسلامي*ايران يادآوري كرد: جمهوري اسلامي *ايران همچنان انتظار دارد تا در تداوم كار دادگاه، رويكردها و اعمال رژيم صدام در ارتباط با تجاوز به جمهوري اسلامي* ايران و ديگر كشورهاي منطقه مورد رسيدگي قرار گرفته و جنايت*هاي جنگي، اعمال ضد بشري و خسارت*هاي مادي و معنوي وارده بر ملت ايران را مورد قضاوت قرار داده و خواست*هاي عادلانه و به حق مردم ايران را محقق سازد.

[Rasputin]

رييس كميسيون امنيت ملي و سياست خارجي مجلس شوراي اسلامي با اشاره به اعدام صدام اظهار داشت: به ملت بزرگ ايران به ويژه خانواده معظم شهداء و جانبازان و مفقودين و آزادگان تبريك مي*گويم كه عامل اصلي جنايت*هاي متعدد عليه مردم ما و به شهادت رساندن بهترين جوانان ما به درك واصل شد.

علاءالدين بروجردي ادامه داد: جنايت صدام محدود به ايران نبود. وي حتي به كساني كه در دوران جنگ كمكش كردند نيز رحم نكرد. جنايت صدام در حلبچه يكي از ننگين*ترين جنايت*هاي تاريخ معاصر است.

وي با بيان اين كه " محاكمه*ي صدام و سرنوشت وي با اعمال نفوذ آمريكايي*ها رقم خورد و آن*ها تا آخرين روزها وي را در اختيار داشتند و كنترل *كردند" افزود: طبيعتا محاكمه وي در چارچوب محدودي صورت گرفت ولي اصل سرنوشت صدام عبرتي در تاريخ معاصر است.

بروجردي خاطرنشان كرد: ما از يك طرف عزت امام راحل را در طول دوران تبعيد پانزده ساله در عراق و زندگي شرافتمندانه و عزتمندانه ايشان را داريم. مبارزات ايشان عليه طاغوت و فرياد حتي عليه رژيم عراق در دوراني كه به اخراج ايرانيان مقيم آن*جا اقدام كرده بودند و بعد هم در زماني كه جنگ تحميلي اتفاق افتاد فراموش نشدني است. از سوي ديگر صدام در اوج غرور و با كمك همه قدرت*هاي آن روز جهان عليه جمهوري اسلامي ايران ، بسيج شد ولي نتوانست كاري كند. ملت ايران و امام راحل و نظام جمهوري اسلامي ايران، علي*رغم خسارت*هاي فراواني كه تحمل كردند، برنده جنگ تحميلي بودند و از دفاع مقدس نيز سرافراز بيرون آمدند.

رييس كميسيون امنيت ملي و سياست خارجي مجلس شوراي اسلامي ادامه داد: در مقابل صدام شكست*هاي متعددي را در دوران جنگ متحمل شد؛ غفتح خرمشهر نقطه عطف پيروزي*هاي جمهوري اسلامي ايران در جنگ تحميلي و به اسارت درآمدن هزاران سرباز و افسر بعث عراق نشان شكست رژيم بعث و شخص صدام در اين اقدام احمقانه بود كه عليه مردم ايران انجام داد.

وي حمله صدام به كشور كويتت را نيز يادآور شد و اظهار داشت: عي*رغم همه*ي كمك*هاي اين كشور به صدام در طول جنگ تحميلي، آن* را نيز مورد حمله قرار داد. امام راحل اين نكته را پيش بيني كرده و به مسوولان كويت تذكر داده بودند كه مار در آستين نپرورانيد كه شما را خواهد زد و درسخنراني*هاي خود تاكيد كرده بودند كه روزي به شما حمله خواهد كرد.

وي هم*چنين يادآور شد: جنايت صدام عليه مردم عراق؛ حمله شيميايي به مردم مظلوم حلبچه نمونه بارز آن است. به شهادت رساندن هزاران تن از مردم بيگناه عراق در سياه چال*هاي رژيم بعث و به شهادت رساندن چهره*هاي برجسته مذهبي ، علمي و علماي بزرگي همانند آيت*الله صدر - كه چهره بسيار برجسته علمي و جزو علماي بزرگ بود- و خواهر فاضله ايشان مرحوم بنت الهداء و همينطور ديگر علما مانند آيت*الله بروجردي كه در نجف بودند مجموعه*اي عظيم از جنايت صدام عليه ملت عراق و نقض فاحش حقوق بشر را به اثبات رساند.

بروجردي گفت: صدام كارنامه*اي سياه و قطور در طول دوران چند ده ساله حاكميت توام با ديكتاتوري در عراق داشت. البته امروز اين سوال به جد مطرح است كه چرا علي*رغم اين همه جنايت عليه ملت ايران و ملت عراق و همه ملت*هاي منطقه، اين*گونه محدود محاكمه شد و محاكمه*ي وي - در مقايسه با ديگر جنايتكاران معاصر مثل ميلوسويوچ يا پينوشه كه در اجلاس*هاي بين*المللي محاكمه شدند - جنبه*ي بين*المللي نداشت.

رييس كميسيون امنيت ملي و سياست خارجي مجلس شوراي اسلامي گفت: صدام را بسيار محدود و با نظارت آمريكايي*ها و بدون باز كردن پرونده جناياتش محاكمه كرده و به سرعت به دست اعدام سپردند، شايد به اين دليل كه بسياري از جنايت*هاي صدام با كشورهاي غربي و به خصوص آمريكايي و همچنين كشورهاي اتحاديه اروپا گره خورده بود.

وي يادآور شد: تكنولوژي ساخت سلاح*هاي شيميايي و ميكروبي را كشوري مانند آلمان در اختيار عراق قرار داد. آمريكايي*ها نيز نقش برجسته*اي در تحريك صدام در آغاز جنگ تحميلي داشتند و كمك*هاي گسترده*اي را به اين جنايتكار جنگي و ديكتاتور داشتند. همينطور كشوري مانند اتحاد جماهير شوروي سابق و حتي كشوري مانند فرانسه نيز در اين كمك*ها دخالت داشتند، و همه*ي اين كشورها به همين دليل اجازه ندادند كه بسياري از اين مسايل به پاي محاكمه كشيده شده، علني و اعلام شود.

وي تاكيد كرد: در هر صورت سرنوشت صدام نشان داد كه حتي اگر قدرت*هاي بزرگ جهاني نيز از يك جنايتكار و ديكتاتور حمايت كنند سرنوشت جنايتكاري و ديكتاتوري همين خواهد بود كه صدام پيدا كرد.

[Rasputin]

صدام، ديكتاتور جنايتكاري كه به مدت ربع قرن مستبدانه بر عراق حكومت كرد و به همسايگانش از جمله ايران و كويت حمله نظامي كرد و بسياري از مردم خود عراق را با سلاح*هاي شيميايي از پاي درآورد، بالاخره امروز (شنبه) صبح به پاي چوبه*ي دار كشانده و اعدام شد كه با جشن و پايكوبي بسياري از عراقي*ها مخصوصا در مناطق شيعه نشين همراه شده است.

به نقل از خبرگزاري آسوشيتدپرس، تلويزيون دولتي عراق صبح امروز در راس اخبار خود اعلام كرد: اعدام صدام اجرا شد. صدام در پاي چوبه*ي دار از گذاشتن سرپوش خودداري كرد و فرياد زد"الله اكبر" و اين پاياني بر زندگي رهبر 69 ساله*ي پيشين عراق بود.

بر اساس گزارش تلويزيون عراق "صدام تا زماني كه مرگش تاييد نشد، بر بالاي چوبه*ي دار باقي ماند و به اين ترتيب برگ تاريكي در تاريخ عراق ورق خورد."

در همين حال موفق *الربيعي، مشاور امنيت ملي عراق به شبكه*ي تلويزيوني العراقيه گفت: ما خواسته بوديم تا او در يك روز خاص اعدام شود.

وي درباره*ي جزئيات اعدام صدام گفت: قاضي حكم اعدام صدام را كه به صورت دست بسته در اتاق اعدام منتظر بود، قرائت كرد و زماني كه صدام در اتاق اعدام ايستاد، عكاسان و فيلم*برداران از وي عكس گرفتند. او هيچ چيزي نخواست و قرآني را كه به همراهش بود خواست كه به عواد بندر داده شود.

وي افزود: با صدام زماني كه زنده بود با احترام برخورد شد و پس از مرگش نيز اينگونه عمل مي*شود. اعدام صدام صد در صد عراقي بود و طرف آمريكايي هيچ مداخله*اي در آن نداشت.

علاوه بر صدام دو تن از هم*دستان جنايتكارش نيز به دار آويخته شدند.

مريم الرئيس، يك مقام رسمي از وزارت خارجه*ي عراق كه در مراسم اعدام صدام و برادر ناتني*اش، برزان ابراهيم تكريتي و هم*چنين عواد البندر، رييس دادگاه انقلابي حكومت صدام حضور داشت، در مصاحبه*اي با تلويزيون دولتي عراق گفت كه اين سه تن يكي پس از ديگري به دار آويخته شدند.

اين مقام وزارت خارجه*ي عراق افزود: از تمام مراسم اعدام كه بين 30/5 تا 30/6 صبح امروز روي داد، فيلمبرداري شد و اين فيلم پخش خواهد شد. يك پزشك نيز در محل اجراي حكم اعدام حاضر بود.

وي افزود: نوري المالكي، نخست وزير عراق در مراسم اعدام حضور نيافت و مشاورش اين مراسم را از نزديك نظاره*گر بود.

صدام و دو تن از همدستانش كه به دار آويخته شدند در تاريخ پنجم نوامبر از سوي دادگاه عالي عراق به اتهام جنايت عليه بشريت در پرونده*ي الدجيل مجرم شناخته شده و به اعدام با چوبه*ي دار محكوم شدند.

مقام عراقي كه شاهد اجراي مراسم اعدام بود، هم*چنين عنوان داشت: ابتدا صدام، سپس برزان ابراهيم و بعد عواد بندر اعدام شدند.

از سوي ديگر سامي العسگري، مشاور سياسي نوري* المالكي، نخست وزير عراق نيز گفت: صدام در لحظه*اي كه از سلول*اش در زندان نظامي آمريكايي بيرون آورده شد، مقاومت مي*كرد اما در آخرين لحظات زندگي*اش هيچ مقاومتي از خود نشان نداد.

صدام قبل از اعدام لباسي سراسر مشكي به تن داشت. كمي پيش از اعدام وي كلاهش برداشته شد و از او سوال شد كه آيا چيزي مي*خواهد كه او پاسخ منفي داد. صدام پس از يك روحاني مسلمان سني دعايي را تكرار كرد و از گذاشتن سرپوش خودداري كرد و به هنگام انداختن طناب به دور گردنش فرياد الله*اكبر سرداد و گفت "عراق پيروز خواهد بود و فلسطين عربي* است."

وي گفت: صدام در مقر اطلاعات نظامي سابق عراق در كاظميه*ي بغداد اعدام شد. دولت هنوز تصميم نگرفته با جسد صدام چگونه عمل كند.

يك مقام عالي*رتبه از وزارت دفاع عراق نيز اعلام كرد صدام وصيتنامه*اش را به يكي از برادرانش داده است.

به گزارش رويتر دختر صدام تقاضا کرده است که جسد پدرش در يمن دفن شود.

* واكنش*ها

در همين حال سخنگوي يکي از احزاب اصلي دولت ائتلافي عراق گفت: اميدوار است که اکنون صفحه جديدي در تاريخ عراق گشوده شود اما عدنان پاچه*چي، از اعضاي شوراي حکومتي عراق که پيشتر اداره امور عراق را در دست داشت، به بي*.بي.سي گفته است اوضاع اين کشور آنچنان وخيم است که اعدام صدام تغيير چنداني در آن ايجاد نمي*کند.

در همين حال ريچارد ديكر، مدير برنامه*ي عدالت بين*المللي ديدبان حقوق بشر از اين اعدام انتقاد كرد و محاكمه*ي صدام را توام با نقص خواند.

وي اظهار داشت: صدام مسوول نقض*هاي گسترده*ي حقوق بشر بود اما مجازات اعدام براي او منصفانه نبود.

جورج بوش نيز اعلام كرد، اعدام صدام پايان يك سال سخت را براي مردم عراق و سربازان ما رقم زد اما مرگ صدام خشونت*ها را در عراق متوقف نمي*سازد.

بوش هم*چنين در بيانيه*اي در تگزاس اظهار داشت: اعدام صدام نقطه*ي عطف مهمي در تاريخ عراق در مسير برقراري دموكراسي است كه مي*تواند از طريق آن خودش را اداره و هم*چنين از خودش دفاع كند و به عنوان يك متحد در جنگ با ترور باشد.

بوش در پيغامي براي مطمئن ساختن مردم عراق گفت: اين اعدام يادآور مسير طولاني*اي است كه مردم عراق از زمان پايان حكومت صدام پيمودند.

وي ادامه داد: پيشرفتي كه آنها كسب كرده*اند بدون فداكارهاي و خدمات زنان و مردان نظامي ما امكان پذير نخواهد بود.

وي هم*چنين نسبت به چالش*هاي بيشتر براي سربازان آمريكايي هشدار داد.

رييس جمهور آمريكا گفت: انتخابات*هاي بسيار سخت و فداكاري*هاي بيشتري پيش رو است. امنيت و آرامش مردم آمريكا هم*چنان نيازمند اين است كه ما به پيشرفت دموكراسي جوان عراق ادامه دهيم.

بوش در سال 2003 زماني كه صدام دستگير شد قول داد صدام با عدالتي روبه*رو مي*شود كه از ميليون*ها تن دريغ كرده بود.

بوش در دسامبر سال 2003 با اشاره به صدام گفته بود: شرش كم! جهان بدون صدام بهتر خواهد بود.

چند ساعت پيش از اجراي حكم اعدام صدام اف.بي.آي و وزارت امنيت داخلي آمريكا به آمريكايي*ها نسبت به احتمال يك حمله*ي تروريستي هشدار دادند و از آنها خواستند تا گوش به زنگ باشند.

سناتور جوزف بيدن، رييس كنوني كميته*ي روابط خارجي سناي آمريكا نيز درباره*ي اعدام صدام در بيانيه*اي اعلام كرد: عراق يكي از تاريك*ترين برگ*ها در تاريخ*اش را بست و جهان را از شر يك خائن نجات داد.

از سوي ديگر انگليس، متحد اصلي آمريكا در عراق با اعلام اين مطلب كه صدام بايد به دليل جناياتش پاسخگو مي*بوده، اما برمخالفتش با استفاده از مجازات مرگ تاكيد كرد.

مارگارت بكت، وزير خارجه*ي انگليس اظهار داشت: من از اين واقعيت استقبال مي*كنم كه صدام از سوي يك دادگاه عراقي به دليل تعدادي از جناياتش كه عليه مردم عراق مرتكب شده بود، محاكمه شده است.

وزير خارجه*ي انگليس گفت، اين کشور از استفاده از مجازات مرگ در عراق يا هيچ مکان ديگري حمايت نمي کند اما براي تصميم يک کشور و دولت مستقل احترام قائل است.

هم*چنين الكساندر داونر، وزيرخارجه*ي استراليا نيز كه كشورش از متحدان كليدي آمريكا در عراق است، درباره*ي مرگ صدام گفت: موضوع اين نيست كه چه كسي درباره*ي مجازات اعدام چگونه مي*انديشد. دولت عراق از موضع دولت استراليا درخصوص مجازات اعدام آگاه است. ما بايد هم*چنين به حق كشورهاي مستقل براي داشتن قوانين دادگاهي مرتبط با جنايات مرتكب شده عليه مردم*شان احترام بگذاريم.

ژاپن، ديگر متحد آمريكا نيز با بيان اين مطلب كه به تصميم عراق احترام مي*گذارد، گفت، اين تصميم دولت جديد عراق است كه مسوول اجراي قوانين است و ما به آن احترام مي*گذاريم.

فرانسه نيز كه رهبري مخالفان در سازمان ملل را عليه جنگ عراق برعهده داشت، از مردم عراق خواست از اين اعدام به عنوان ابزاري براي پايان دادن به اختلافاتشان استفاده كنند.

وزارت خارجه*ي فرانسه با انتشار بيانيه*اي از تمام مردم عراق خواست تا به آينده*ي عراق چشم دوخته و در جهت اتحاد و آشتي ملي تلاش كنند.

در اين بيانيه آمده است: اكنون بيش از هر زمان ديگر بايد استقلال كامل و ثبات در عراق برقرار شود.

فرانسه با اشاره به مخالفت اروپا براي مجازات اعدام خاطرنشان كرده تصميم اعدام صدام از سوي مردم و مقامات مستقل عراق اتخاذ شده است.

در روسيه نيز ميخائيل مارگلف، رييس كميته*ي روابط بين*المللي دوما اعلام كرد اين اعدام بي*ثباتي را در عراق افزايش مي*دهد و چرخه*ي جديدي از خشونت*ها را باعث مي*شود.

يكي از نمايندگان مجلس سفلي روسيه نيز گفت: اعدام صدام اوضاع را نه تنها در عراق بلكه در كل منطقه*ي خليج فارس بي*ثبات مي كند.

وزارت خارجه*ي روسيه نيز با ابراز تاسف نسبت به اعدام صدام اعلام كرد درخواست*هاي بين*المللي براي عفو صدام ناديده گرفته شد.

مالزي، كه رياست سازمان كنفرانس اسلامي را برعهده دارد، نسبت به پيامد اعدام صدام كه مي*تواند آغازگر خونريزي*هاي بيشتر باشد هشدار داد.

سيد حميد البار، وزيرخارجه*ي مالزي، به خبرگزاري فرانسه گفت: بسياري از مردم و به طور عموم جامعه*ي بين*المللي با اين اعدام موافق نبودند.

فدريكو لومباردي، سخنگوي واتيكان اعدام صدام را به عنوان يك اقدام تراژيك محكوم كرد و نسبت به وقوع چرخه*ي جديدي از خشونت*ها و اقدامات انتقام جويانه در عراق ابراز نگراني كرد.

از سوي ديگر خبرگزاري رسمي ليبي، جانا، گزارش كرد، به دنبال اعدام صدام ليبي سه روز عزاي عمومي اعلام كرده است!

پرچم*ها در ساختمان*هاي عمومي به حالت نيمه افراشته درآمد.

در اسراييل نيز شيمون پرز، معاون نخست وزير اعلام كرد اسراييل از اعدام صدام استقبال مي*كند و اين خائن سابق خودش اسباب مرگش را فراهم كرد.

در فلسطين نيز دولت حماس اعلام كرد اعدام صدام يك ترور سياسي است و تمامي قوانين بين*المللي را نقض مي*كند. فوزي برهوم، سخنگوي دولت حماس به خبرگزاري فرانسه گفت: صدام يك زنداني جنگي بود و اعدام او يك ترور سياسي است.


* نگاهي به محاكمه*ي صدام و همدستانش

دادگاه عالي عراق روز 14 آبان (پنجم نوامبر) سرانجام اولين حكم خود را در رابطه با صدام صادر كرد كه به موجب اين حكم صدام در پرونده*ي الدجيل گناهكار شناخته شده و به "مرگ" با چوبه دار محكوم شد.

به گزارش خبرگزاري دانشجويان ايران (ايسنا) محاكمه*ي صدام در حالي در تاريخ 27/07/84 آغاز شد كه وي در تاريخ

*11/ *4/ *83 در اولين جلسه*ي دادگاه قضايي عراق حاضر شد و تفهيم اتهام گرديد.

نزديك به *500 اتهام عليه صدام مطرح شد اما مقامات دادگاه تصميم گرفتند تنها در *12 مورد صدام را محاكمه كنند كه در اين ميان اشاره به حمله به ايران نشده است.

[Rasputin]

دادگاه موارد كلي اتهامي صدام را اينگونه برشمرد: آزار و شكنجه*ي زندانيان، مصادر اموال، تجاوز به نواميس مردم، جرايم انساني و غير اخلاقي، محروم كردن مردم از حقوق قانوني*شان، دستگيري و ترور نخبگان علمي و ديني، جنايات مربوط به حلبچه و كشتار عشيره بارزاني، جنگ عليه ايران، سركوبي قيام شيعيان و كردها در سال *1991، از بين بردن زير بناي اقتصادي عراق، ربودن ثروت*هاي ملي، فساد اخلاقي، مالي و اداري.

اولين پرونده*ي رسيدگي به جنايات صدام، پرونده*ي الدجيل بود.

قتل عام الدجيل در سال *1982 اتفاق افتاد و طي آن *148 نفر از اهالي اين شهر به دستور صدام كشته شدند.

دجيل شهري است در *50 مايلي شمال بغداد كه به عنوان يكي از مراكز فعاليت اپوزيسيون در زمان قدرت صدام مطرح بود. مصاحبه با شاهدان عيني قتل*عام *148 نفر از ساكنان اين شهر از زمان سقوط صدام به اين سو از جمله مصاحبه مه *2003 بوسيله آسوشيتدپرس زواياي اين جنايت را بيشتر مشخص كرده است. در سال *1982 اين شهر به عنوان يكي از مراكز مهم فعاليت حزب شيعي الدعوه بود كه با جنگ صدام عليه ايران مخالفت جدي مي*كرد. زماني كه صدام و همراهان او در *8 ژوييه *1982 براي شركت در اجلاسي وارد دجيل شدند، مردان مسلح حزب الدعوه به روي صدام و همراهان وي آتش گشودند به طوري كه درگيري بين آنها ساعت*ها طول كشيد.

در نهايت اين هلي*كوپترهاي نظامي و تانك*هاي ارتش عراق بودند كه توانستند صدام و همراهان او را از خطر مرگ برهانند.

پس از اين واقعه پليس مخفي عراق خانواده*هاي اين شهر را يكجا جمع كردند، درختان ميوه، باغات و خانه*ها را تخريب كردند و حدود *150 نفر از اهالي شهر از جمله نوجوانان را پس از يك محاكمه صوري اعدام كردند.

در پرونده*ي الدجيل علاوه بر صدام، طه ياسين رمضان، معاون سابق رييس جمهور عراق، عواد حمد بندر، قاضي دادگاهي كه براي برخي قربانيان در حكومت حزب بعث حكم مرگ داده بود، برزان ابراهيم التكريتي، برادر ناتني صدام و چهار متهم ديگر به نام*هاي عبدالله الرويد، مزهر عبدالله، علي دايح و محمد عزاوي كه در كشتار مردم الدجيل با رژيم صدام همكاري كردند، متهمان اصلي بودند.

دادگاه*هاي صدام كه در آنها پرونده*ي الدجيل و بخشي از پرونده*ي الانفال بررسي شد، با فراز و نشيب*هاي بسيار و تغييرات گوناگوني همراه بوده است. اولين قاضي دادگاه "رزگار محمد امين" از كردهاي عراق بود كه پس از چند جلسه به دليل آنچه دخالت دولت در كارش و مسائل شخصي ناميد، استعفا كرد. با استعفاي وي قاضي رئوف رشيد عبدالرحمن انتخاب شد كه وي نيز از اهالي حلبچه عراق بود. رسيدگي به پرونده*ي الدجيل *40 جلسه طول كشيد.

در اين جلسات خليل الدليمي، رياست تيم دفاعي را برعهده داشت و در تيم دفاعي رمزي كلارك، دادستان آمريكا در دهه*ي*1960 و گروهي حدودا *20 نفره از وكلاى عرب و غير عربى حضور داشتند. هم*چنين چند تن از وكيلان مدافع تيم دفاعي در جريان برگزاري جلسات ترور شدند.

جعفر الموسوي نيز دادستاني دادگاه صدام را برعهده داشت.

55 روز پيش دادگاه عراق احكام متهمان الدجيل را اينگونه صادر كرد:

- طه ياسين رمضان معاون صدام به حبس ابد به علاوه *10 سال حبس محكوم شد؛

- برزان تكريتي برادر ناتني صدام به اتهام قتل و كشتار و وادار كردن مردم به مهاجرت به اعدام با چوبه*ي دار و نيز *10 سال حبس محكوم شد؛

- عواد بندر قاضي دادگاه انقلاب و معاون رييس دفتر صدام به اعدام محكوم شد؛

- محمد عزاوي به دليل نبود مدارك كافي عليه وي آزاد شد؛

- علي دايح علي و عبدالله رويد هر كدام به *22 سال حبس محكوم شدند؛

- ناصر عبدالله كاظم به *15 سال حبس محكوم شد؛

* اصلي*ترين جنايات صدام

- *16 ژوئيه *1979، زمان كوتاهي پس از به قدرت رسيدن، *15 تن از سران حزب بعث به اتهام جاسوسي عليه وي توسط جوخه*ي مرگ اعدام شدند؛

- *22 سپتامبر *1980، تهاجم نيروهاي عراقي به ايران و آغاز جنگ هشت ساله عليه ايران كه بيش از يك ميليون كشته برجاي گذاشت. حمله*ي شيميايي به ايران و كشتن بيش از هزار تن در سال *1983، اقدام عليه قبيله*ي كرد بارزاني به بهانه*ي كمك به ايران و كشتن *8000 كرد و ايجاد گور دسته جمعي؛

- *88-1986، حمله*اي با عنوان انفال كه شامل حملات شيميايي عليه كردها و كشتن بيش از *180 هزار تن شد؛

- *28 مارس *1988، حمله*ي شيميايي به شهر كردنشين حلبچه و كشتن بيش از *5000 تن و *2 اوت *1990، دستور حمله به كويت، شليك موشك*هاي اسكاد به عربستان سعودي، شكنجه و اعدام صدها كويتي و آتش زدن چاه*هاي نفت كويت؛

- *1991، كشته شدن بيش از *60 هزار تن در سركوب شيعيان در جنوب عراق و كردها در شمال عراق در آستانه*ي جنگ خليج فارس؛

- *20 فوريه *1996، قتل دو دامادش پس از بازگشت از اردن.

[Rasputin]

Execution of a subdued Saddam was quick -witnesses

BAGHDAD, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A calm and subdued Saddam Hussein was brought shackled into a hall early Saturday morning in Baghdad before a noose was placed around his neck and a guard pulled a lever that swiftly ended his life and a huge chapter of Iraq's history.

Sami al-Askari, a prominent Shi'ite politician close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, witnessed the event and told Reuters the process of Saddam's execution took 25 minutes but once he was dropped through a trap door his death was very quick.

"One of the guards pulled a lever and he dropped half a meter into a trap door. We heard his neck snap instantly and we even saw a small amount of blood around the rope, they left him hanging for around 10 minutes before a doctor confirmed his death and they untied him and placed him in a white bodybag," Askari told Reuters.

Another official witness at the court confirmed Saddam died instantly.

"He seemed very calm. He did not tremble," the official said, adding that Saddam, 69, recited, as instructed by an official, the Muslim profession of faith before he died.

"There is no God but God and Mohammed is his prophet," the former president intoned.

Askari said Saddam, executed for his role in the killings of 148 men and boys from the Shi'ite town of Dujail after a failed attempt on his life in 1982, was executed at 6:10 am (0310 GMT) local time according to his watch at an Iraqi army base in Kadhimiya.

The base was the former headquarters for Saddam's military intelligence where many of his victims were tortured and executed in the same dark gallows. The northern Baghdad district is also home to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines.

Askari said Saddam, was led in to the small hall by six Iraqi guards, was dressed in a black coat, dark jumper, black trousers, black shoes. He was bound and shackled. He was asked to remove a black hat but was allowed to keep a grey scarf for his execution.

"After he entered the small hall, Saddam had a seat as a judge read him the details of the sentence. But as he saw the camera come in to record, he began shouting the same rubbish we have seen in court. Long live Palestine and other slogans," he said.

He said Saddam's hand-cuffs that tied his arms in front of his body when he came in was reversed when he was led to the noose with his arms tied behind his body.

Askari said about 15 people were present, including government ministers, members of parliament, relatives of victims and representatives from the special court and Justice Ministry.

He said no cleric was present as Saddam hadn't requested one and that he had no final requests. Askari said the 15 present remained silent as they watched but congratulated each other after he was confirmed dead.

[Rasputin]

Saddam's death angers many Arabs, foes rejoice

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's execution on Saturday angered many Arabs, but even some who felt the former Iraqi leader deserved to die voiced a sense of justice denied.

Many said his hanging for crimes against humanity, on the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, would worsen violence in Iraq.

"I don't have any sorrow or compassion for the man, but the timing is very stupid and Muslims will think this was done to provoke their feelings," said Ehab Abdel-Hamid, 30, a novelist and senior editor at Cairo's independent al-Dostour newspaper.

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, told Al Jazeera television:

"Arab public opinion wonders who deserves to be tried and executed: Saddam Hussein who preserved the unity of Iraq, its Arab and Islamic identity and the coexistence of its different communities such as Shi'ites and Sunnis ... or those who engulfed the country in this bloody civil war?"

No immediate street protests were reported in Arab capitals, where Muslims were preoccupied with the Eid al-Adha holiday.

In Afghanistan, which preceded Iraq as the first target in the U.S.-declared "war on terror", a top commander of the resurgent Islamist Taliban movement said Saddam's death would galvanize Muslim opposition to the United States.
"His death will boost the morale of Muslims. The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase," Mullah Obaidullah Akhund told Reuters by telephone.

News of Saddam's death shocked Palestinians, many of whom had seen him as an Arab hero for his missile attacks on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War that ended Iraq's occupation of Kuwait.

People in Gaza, alerted by text messages or phone calls, hurried home after Eid prayers in mosques to watch the news and to slaughter sheep for the traditional Muslim feast.

"What is he (Saddam), a sheep? I think the Americans wanted to tell all Arab leaders who are their servants that they are like Saddam, nothing but a sheep slaughtered on the day of Eid," said a worshipper called Abu Mohammad Salama.

Mushir al-Masri, a lawmaker of the governing Islamist Hamas movement, said: "The execution of President Saddam Hussein was a proof of the criminal and terrorist American policy and its war against all forces of resistance in the world."

FLAWED JUSTICE

In Kuwait, where Saddam is reviled for his 1990 invasion, Ahmed al-Shatti, a Health Ministry official, said the Iraqi leader was a criminal whose trial had been incomplete.

"He did not answer for the crime of occupying Kuwait and the atrocities he committed in Kuwait," Shatti said, arguing that Arabs should not be angry about his death but about U.S. failure to bring democracy, stability and development to Iraq.
In Shi'ite non-Arab Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi said the hanging of the man who led Iraq into a costly war with the Islamic Republic in the 1980s was a victory for Iraqis.

But Yousef Molaee, an Iranian international law expert, took the view that the dawn execution was a failure for justice.

"Saddam's crimes in the eight-year war against Iran, such as chemical bombardments, remained unanswered because of the hasty and unfair trial," state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.

In Mecca, Sunni Arab pilgrims voiced outrage that Iraqi authorities had executed Saddam on a major religious holiday.

"His execution on the day of Eid...is an insult to all Muslims," said Jordanian pilgrim Nidal Mohammad Salah.

Ahmed Al Mudaweb, a political editor at Bahrain's Al Watan newspaper, predicted that the former Iraqi president's hanging would spur the insurgency by his fellow Sunnis in Iraq.

"He will become a kind of martyr, and his status as a political figure will increase," he said.

Khalaf al-Alayan, a Sunni Iraqi lawmaker, told Al Jazeera from Jordan: "This was an act of vengeance against Iraq."

[Rasputin]

Americans cheer Saddam death, but see little change

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - Americans welcomed the execution of Saddam Hussein as justice served but the hanging did little to shift focus from the debate over America's future in Iraq.

"I guess it's one less person in the world we have to deal with, but it's kind of sad that this is still at the forefront with all the worse things that are going on," Cincinnati university student Erin Faulk, 20, said Friday night.

"I don't know if it will change anything. I don't think it will," she added.

Saddam was executed by hanging shortly before 10 p.m. EST Friday/(0300 GMT Saturday). The former Iraqi president was convicted in November of crimes against humanity for the killings of 148 Shi'ite villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982.

A poll this week showed 82 percent of Americans supported the execution, the highest support of six nations surveyed. The Harris Interactive online poll, conducted November 30 to December 9, found 69 percent support for the execution in Britain, 58 percent in France and 53 percent in Germany.

U.S. television showed scenes of cheering and flag-waving Iraqi-Americans in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest U.S. Arab-American community.

In the dusty town of Douglas, Arizona, on the border with Mexico, Saddam's death was welcomed.
"I wouldn't mind hanging Saddam myself, I think it's a good thing," said Lynn Kartchner, a Vietnam veteran and gun shop owner.

"I think there will be less long-term violence in Iraq now as there is no chance of him coming back to power -- they have cut off the head of the snake and his followers have no leadership," Kartchner added.

President George W. Bush called the execution an important milestone on Iraq's path to democracy but said it would not end the violence there.

It was also unlikely to ease Americans' concern about U.S. involvement in Iraq, where scores of civilians are killed daily and nearly 3,000 U.S. troops have died.

"It was long overdue. Saddam was certainly guilty and he got what he had coming," said Trini Valencia, a 39-year-old banker in Cincinnati. "But other people should be standing next to him. Bush should be standing right next to him, because he's doing the same thing -- killing his own people."

Cincinnati student Alyssa Garrett, 18, said Saddam's death would not stem the bloodshed in Iraq.

"Sure we got him and all that, but we were there for all the wrong reasons," said Garrett. "It won't change anything."

[Rasputin]

He deserved it

This morning when I checked upon the latest news, Aneesh Raman, the CNN correspondent in Baghdad broke the long-awaited news "Saddam Hussein was executed a few minutes ago ..." Although I knew the death of the old dictator was imminent, I could hardly digest it and had to sit down and take a deep breath. I was experiencing the first few minutes of my life without Saddam. A predator who attacked my country and killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of my compatriots and affected the lives of millions in one or another way. He inflicted pain on the residents of four completely destroyed provinces and displaced millions who had to move to other cities. My heart jumped when I thought about millions of parents, siblings, wives, husbands and children who have to carry the burden of the loss of their dear ones to their graves.

I was still a teenager when the war started. One afternoon when I was taking a nap in my grandmother's house there were at least 5 big explosions. At first we thought it might have been another bombing incident that was so common in those days. But a couple of hours later the news broadcast of TV and radio announced the Iraqi air raid against Mehrabad airport and a few other cities. In a few days we heard explosions and saw things that we had never imagined or dreamed of.

I remembered the nights we had to stay tuned on the radio to hear the sirens to get up and gather the whole family and take them downstairs. I remembered the times we had to take refuge under the staircase or the doorframes or whatever shelter available and waite for the big bangs to happen. The times we had to hurry for our mother's heart medicine right after the attacks. I remembered the times we had to flee the city and go to the suburbs and wait for the nocturnal bombings to happen. I remembered the morning when we returned home to see our dog had died and all the windows smashed to pieces, tearing the curtains, and shrapnel all over the place. I remembered when a place near my granny's in Zafar streets was hit and she was shocked by the explosions waves. And the human remains that were found among the shooting debris on her rooftop a few days later.

But the most enduring bitter memory in my mind is the savage attack I witnessed in Kamiaran. I was a student in Tehran university so I was on a temporary exemption from going to the war front. But in the final years of the war even the university students were called to be sent on a six-month period of military service (Tarh Shesh Maheh) and I was among the very first group of students who were supposed to go.

They took us to Kamiaran in Kermanshah Province near the borders of the Kurdistan for a brief military training before sending us to the front. Since I was a student of science, they decided to send me to Shin-Mim-Reh or the division for chemical, microbiological, radioactive defense. We were being trained in Kamiaran when one afternoon the city was heavily bombarded by the Iraqi Sukhoi warplanes. At least fifty bombs were dropped in and around the city in a matter of just a few minutes. Our barracks was in the outs***ts of the city, yet we were jolted in our buildings exactly like a baby in a cradle.

After the attack we got out and hurried to the city. There was fire and blood everywhere. For a Tehrani boy who had never seen blood in his life the images were just like a nightmare. A nightmare in living daylight. I saw a burned up taxi and its charred passengers. The driver was still moaning and moving in the fire. I tried to reach for the door handle but it was impossible to touch the burning car. I could only touch the black and burnt hand of the driver loosely hanging from the window, as if trying to put him out of that firebox when one of my friends pulled me back. I kept the drivers hand for a few moment and felt something came off from his body into my hand. There was something in my hand and could not see it through all that smoke and fire. I bent down to see I had taken a piece of human flesh and charred fabrics off the hanging hand of the driver. I doubled up in pain and threw up right then and there.

A few meters away a young man was carrying a dying small girl in his arms, never knowing where to go. She was taken from the rubbles and still moved her head and hands. Her white face and chestnut hair was covered with layers of dust and she had only one shoe in her little foot. The other foot was nowhere to be seen.

I saw so much blood and dead bodies in one single afternoon that a normal person would never see even in war movies. To this day I cannot stand films with scenes of air raids and bombings. Once I decided to watch Pearl Harbor but the painful pictures were so strong in my mind that I had to give it a second thought.

Yes, today Saddam in gone, and so are hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. Let'ss hope for the day when all the blood suckers in this great planet of ours are brought to justice and punished. Let's keep our fingers crossed that those disasters would never happen to us again. We have had more than our share of bloodshed. We could really use a little bit of peace and freedom. We deserve it.