Saddam Verdict

Saddam: more queries than answers

Indian Express, (New Delhi), November 07, 2006

The much-awaited death sentence handed to the former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, creates more complications than it solves. He was convicted for the killing of 148 civilians in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt. Hussein, who has the automatic right to appeal, also faces similar charges for the death of scores of his opponents and Iraqi Kurds.

Predictably, reactions both within and outside the region were along partisan lines. Those who were at the receiving end of Saddam Hussein’s fury greeted the decision as fair and appropriate. Anything short of a death sentence would have meant that their ordeals would remain a forgotten incident in history. For the Kurds and Shias of Iraq, Saddam symbolised the brutal face of the Ba’athist regime. For the same partisan reasons, the Sunni Arabs who had benefited under the Hussein dispensation, opposed the verdict as an American conspiracy.

Likewise, Iran and Kuwait — the two states who were at the receiving end of Saddam’s aggressive designs — are more than happy to see him hanged. Despite its political differences with Washington, the Islamic Republic of Iran had been pleased to see his removal by the US-led forces. The US accomplished what the ayatollahs had always wanted but could never achieve: the removal of Saddam and his trial and execution for the war crimes he had committed against the Iranians.

The same holds true for Kuwait, which he sought to invade in 1990. Even though the US-led multilateral alliance restored status quo ante the following February, Kuwait had never forgiven him for his aggression. It was no accident that one of the first actions of the post-Saddam Iraqi government under then prime minister, Iyad Alawi, was to seek reconciliation with the Gulf sheikhdom. Likewise, the US was pleased with the verdict. President George Bush responded quickly and Washington saw this verdict as “a milestone” in Iraqi history and “a major achievement” for the young democracy and constitutional order in Iraq. That the former dictator was not killed during a military operation but was duly tried in an Iraqi court would be presented as a vindication of US efforts to sow the seeds of democracy in Iraq. As for the Republicans, they see the verdict’s timing — coming as it does days before the crucial bi-annual elections in the US — as a divine intervention that may rescue them from losing control of the US senate.

The reactions in other parts of the Middle East are mixed. Many see it as a US-imposed verdict handed down by a kangaroo court. The continued US occupation would be another factor that clouds the impartiality of the judicial process. While not many countries in the region have a positive view of the brutality unleashed by Saddam Hussein against his own people, they have found him to be an effective rallying point against their own Arab rulers and their Western supporters, especially the US. He has, in fact, emerged as a champion of the down-trodden and a battle cry against US hegemony.

As the UN-sanctioned economic blockade imposed by the US was strangulating the Ba’athist regime, Iraq found widespread support among the Arab masses. This became even more acute when the US planned to invade Iraq. Even those Arab states which wanted Saddam Hussein’s removal were too afraid to identify with the US agenda against Iraq and chose to criticise in public the American designs on Iraq.

The partisan reactions to the verdict symbolise the passion Saddam Hussein generated while he was in office. Short of acquittal, the death sentence was an inevitable verdict. At one level, it might usher in a constitutional process that relies on due process, something that has been alien to Iraq and many other countries in the region for a long time. At another, the verdict would not solve any of the mounting problems facing Iraq and its immediate neighbours. In fact, it will intensify and fuel the sectarian violence with the Sunni Arabs using the verdict as their new rallying point.

Thus, despite the actual charges, the Saddam Hussein trial was intensely political. The implications of this verdict will be felt far beyond Iraq.

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