PAKISTAN: Pakistani tribesmen protest against Saddam verdict

A demonstration in Pakistan's tribal areas, called to condemn last week's airstrike on a 'madrasa' (religious school), turned into a pro-Saddam rally on Monday (November 6). Saddam Hussein, the 69-year-old former president of Iraq, his half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander were sentenced to death for killing, torturing and deporting hundreds of people from the Shi'ite town of Dujail after Shi'ite gunmen tried to kill Saddam there in 1982. In Khar, the main town of Bajaur Agency in Pakistan's rugged tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, thousands of tribesmen, who had assembled to protest against the strike that killed 83 people in the madrasa, started chanting "Long live Saddam," and "Death to America," after their elders condemned the sentence passed on the former Iraqi strongman. "We demand from the International Court of Justice that (U.S. president George W.) Bush and his allies should be hanged first and only after that should Saddam be tried," local Senator Abdur Rasheed told the charged crowd. "Long live Saddam. Long live brave Mujahid (holy warrior) Saddam. Long live the people of Iraq," the crowd cried back. Rasheed said the sentence had been passed by a court which was working under directions of the American government. "Bush has not been hanged and Saddam has been sentenced to death. This is an injustice of the court. We are not ready to accept this verdict," said the firebrand senator to chants of "Allah is Greatest." Saddam admitted ordering the execution of 148 men, calling it justified in wartime against allies of Shi'ite Iran. International human rights groups, which had called for the case to be heard abroad, said the killing of three defence lawyers, the resignation of a judge over political interference and flaws in evidence meant that it fell short of a fair trial. But U.S. and Iraqi officials hailed the year-long process as proof of the independence of Iraq's judiciary and a new landmark in the development of international war crimes law since Nazi leaders were tried, and some hanged, at Nuremberg 60 years ago.

ITN Source | November 7, 2006

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