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    Le Monde | Editorial

    Wednesday 27 December 2006

    Saddam Hussein will be hanged in the next thirty days, the Baghdad Court of Appeal decided. The court definitively rejected on Tuesday, December 26, the appeal lodged by the former tyrant's defense team. In theory at least, neither anything nor any person may now legally prevent the execution of the man who presided for twenty-four years over the destiny of the country that was long the most powerful in the Arab world.

    The Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, made known from before the conviction - pronounced on November 5 by the special tribunal established in 2004 by the Americans in Baghdad - that he hoped the former dictator would be executed "before the end of the year." It is therefore probable that the death sentence will be carried out very rapidly. By the terms of Iraqi law, the government alone decides the fateful day.

    Transpiring at the end of a semipublic trial - held during a raging civil war and marked by the assassination of three defense lawyers and a witness for the prosecution, as well as by the resignation of two presidents of the court publicly snubbed by the government for having shown themselves "too understanding" of the defendants - the sentence has already been rejected by the United Nations and by all the major human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Iraq, which re-established the death penalty in August 2005, has since executed several dozen convicts.

    History will undoubtedly record that the fall and arrest - as well as the trial of the former tyrant and his lieutenants - were from beginning to end an American affair. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that the sentence, pronounced by Iraqi judges, corresponds to the wishes of the vast majority of the citizens of this unhappy country. Apart from indignant reactions from within the national Sunni minority, and given that no significant guerrilla group demands the former tyrant's return, it is unlikely that the executions will provoke any particular surge in violence. Since the April 2003 invasion, Iraqis have undergone so much daily carnage that the fate of the former dictator has not been the first of their concerns for a long time.

    "Victors' justice" happens. Many, especially abroad, will not only rue the worse-than-imperfect conditions of the trial, but also the fact that the former dictator will be executed for one of the lesser of his crimes: to whit, the 1982 massacre of 148 Shiite civilians in Dujail. The hundreds of thousands of Kurdish and Shiite Arab families who lost those dear to them in the various campaigns of bloody repression ordered by Saddam Hussein will not find their closure in it either.

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    Some Iraqis Fear Saddam Execution Would Fuel Violence
    Reuters

    Wednesday 27 December 2006

    Baghdad - Many Iraqis said on Wednesday they would welcome a swift execution of Saddam Hussein but others expressed fears that carrying out the death sentence now would further fuel sectarian violence.

    An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam's death sentence for crimes against humanity and said he should hang within 30 days. It comes amid raging violence between Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs and majority Shi'ites.

    "This is a just sentence because Saddam oppressed the Iraqi people but I think it came at the wrong time because we're living through a cycle of violence," said Baghdad resident Mohammed Nasir.

    Edward Iskander, a 37-year-old shopkeeper, agreed.

    "I just hope they let him die naturally because if we execute him, his followers will unleash mayhem," Iskander said as he opened his small food store in central Baghdad's Karrada district.

    Some people fear Saddam's die-hard followers, who form part of the Sunni Arab insurgency, will produce a bloody backlash if he is executed. But others say his death will end their hopes and their fight.

    "I think his death will end violence from Sunnis and they'll be forced to negotiate for reconciliation. We desperately need to turn this page in history," said Akram Salman, a 21-year-old mathematics university student.

    Shi'ites and Kurds, Saddam's main victims during his 24-year rule, have been keen to speed up the execution but some minority Sunni Arabs, who had been the ruling elite for decades, are nostalgic for his return.

    There were no major celebrations or protests against the decision as many Iraqis, struggling to live through sectarian violence and shortages in basic services, had expected the November 5 death sentence to be upheld.

    Iraqi newspapers squeezed in headlines and small articles on the announcement late on Tuesday by the head of the Iraqi High Tribunal, Aref Abdul-Razzaq al-Shahin, but no editorials focused on the decision.

    It remains unclear when Saddam will be executed for his role in the killings of 148 Shi'ite villagers after a failed 1982 assassination attempt against him in the village of Dujail, but al-Shahin said the sentence must be carried out within 30 days.

    Although many Iraqis anxiously wait to see if it may help ease violence or improve their lives, laundry owner Yusif Ali said he just wanted to enjoy the moment when it comes.

    "I'm very happy that justice was finally done," Ali said. "All I ask the government is for a broadcast of his execution."