By Paul Tate and Hugh Naylor
AMMAN — Iraqis and Jordanians expressed differing views yesterday over the death sentence against former president Saddam Hussein, with some describing the verdict as a victory for justice while others claimed it to be politically motivated.
“I am not happy or sad about the verdict. But he deserves to die. His policies caused a lot of harm and suffering to Iraqis,” said Fatima Salim, 31, a Shiite who fled to Jordan six months ago after her uncle was kidnapped by sectarian militias and presumed killed.
A court in Baghdad yesterday sentenced Saddam to death by hanging over the murder of more than 148 Shiite Muslims in reprisal for a 1982 assassination attempt on the Iraqi leader in the town of Dujail.
Saddam’s half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed Al Bandar, head of the former revolutionary court, were also sentenced to hang, while former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison.
Salim, one of up to 800,000 Iraqis who have sought refuge in Jordan since the US-led invasion of March 2003, said, however, that the trial was politically motivated to coincide with Tuesday’s US congressional elections.
“It’s political that’s why the court issued the verdict at this time, but I still believe he deserved the death penalty.”
Talal Said, a Sunni from Iraq’s Diyala Governorate, agreed that Saddam warranted capital punishment for the crimes he committed against his own people and also for his wars against Iran and Kuwait.
“He conducted genocide and gassed his own people. No one can deny he was a brutal dictator,” said Said, who claimed to have fled persecution at the hands of the Baathist regime in 2001 before seeking refuge in Jordan.
He said although the verdict may cause a spike in violence in Sunni strongholds throughout the Anbar Province, it was the right decision as Saddam had betrayed the Iraqi nation.
“He [Saddam] fled his people when the Americans invaded. He abandoned them, which means he should be put to death.”
However, Jordanian worshippers leaving a west Amman mosque vented their anger yesterday at the court’s decision, arguing that Saddam was innocent of the charges and had been subjected to degrading treatment while in US custody.
“Who was responsible for Abu Ghraib? They [the United States] should be found guilty,” said civil engineer Mohammad Abu Ayyoub, adding that Saddam was forced to wash his own clothes and deprived of basic necessities.
When asked about the former president’s killing of Shiite villagers in Dujail and the alleged gassing of Kurds in Halabja in the late 1980s, Abu Ayyoub shrugged his shoulders and declined to comment.
Standing in front of the mosque’s entrance, fruit vendor Kamal Abdullah waved his fists defiantly in the air in a display of open support for the former Iraqi leader.
“Saddam was good, Saddam was good. He was like my brother. He was good,” he shouted, as his younger brother stood by his side nodding in agreement.
Rawia Shammaf, who arrived here from Iraq seven years ago and works as a technician at an eye clinic in Tlaa Al Ali, said she opposed the death sentence but her thoughts were focussed on her family back home in the Dora District of Baghdad.
“He was our president for many years. But I guess the new government knows more than me, so they know what to do with him,” she said.
“Everything is different since the Americans came. At the beginning people were happy Saddam was gone. But things are different now,” she said in reference to the increasing sectarian violence that is plaguing parts of the country.
“I worry about my family everyday, they can’t even leave their houses now… I feel bad for all of the Iraqi people. We have enough killing in Iraq already.”
Political Analyst Mohammad Masri, from the University of Jordan’s Centre for Strategic Studies, said the verdict would have a negligible affect on the level of violence in the neighbouring country.
“After the verdict, some people will no doubt get emotional and hold demonstrations but immediate reactions to the verdict will cease in the coming days and it will not affect the nature of the conflict,” said Masri.
The researcher noted that many of Iraq’s insurgent groups, such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic Army of Iraq, were never supporters of Saddam, while former Baath Party members have sought to distance themselves from the deposed leader.
“The internal dynamics of the conflict will be the decisive factors: Which are the occupation and the general polarisation of Iraqi society.”
Monday, November 6, 2006
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