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Strangulating justice to hang a dictator
Tuesday, 7 November 2006 - 4:14 AM SL Time
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That Saddam Hussein would be sentenced to death by hanging was a foregone conclusion. Judging by the way the Iraqi High Tribunal handled the case from the very inception, it was clear that its mission was to give a predetermined verdict a touch of legitimacy. Many were the instances where the judges betrayed their prejudice thus lending credence to Hussein`s refusal to recognise the authority of the Tribunal. Parallel to the show trial, he was also subjected to a media trial by the western media pundits who don`t hesitate to function as the shock troops of their governments when their interests are threatened.
There has been a mixed reaction to the sentence. Opinion is divided in Iraq over it. The US has lost no time in welcoming it as a milestone in the democratisation process in Iraq. Kuwait, which has suffered under Hussein`s jackboot, is demanding that his execution be expedited. The EU has taken exception to the death sentence. In endorsing or denouncing the judgment, the criterion has not been the principle of justice. Instead, it has been one`s allegiance or opposition to either Hussein or the US. Those countries that are beholden to the US would have endorsed even a decision to stone Hussein to death without a trial while others would have opposed the judgment even if it had been handed down after proper process and procedure.
Let there be no argument about the fact that all those who commit crimes must be made to pay for them. That must apply in equal measure to those who aid and abet criminals as well. While grand preparations are being made to hang Hussein, the question that needs to be raised is: Who created the monster?
The main reason for sending him to the gallows is the massacre of about 140 Shiite villagers over an alleged attempt to assassinate him in 1982. It was in the same year that the US removed Iraq from the list of states sponsoring terrorism. Moreover, within two years of that gruesome massacre, the US restored diplomatic relations with Iraq!
Hussein was instrumental in the perpetration of far worse crimes. He used chemical weapons on Iraqis and Iranians. We pointed out in these columns on October 21, 2005 (Why only Saddam? Try them all!): `The US is the only country that voted against a UN Security Council statement in 1986 condemning the mustard gas attacks by Iraq on the Iranian forces! The US also allowed its companies to export chemicals to Iraq, which Hussein used on humans. All chemical attacks by Saddam on the Kurds under the Anfal campaign, which left over 150,000 Kurds dead, over 1,000 Kurdish villages destroyed and about 300,000 Kurds displaced, had the blessings of the West. The crop spraying helicopters used in those attacks came from the US! Those massacres had no adverse impact on the trade that Iraq had with the West. Instead, it increased.`
Death sentence may look too lenient a punishment for a monster like Hussein. But why didn`t those who are all out to hang him today for a past massacre do anything to stop him in his tracks? His rise from the position of an ordinary leader to the giddy heights of tyranny, as we have pointed out, wouldn`t have been possible without help from the world powers, especially the US.
If Hussein had prostituted the Iraqi oil fields to be in the good book of the western powers and continued to be a hit man at their beck and call, he would still have been their blue eyed dictator. His victims are lucky that he made the blunder of crossing the path of his former sponsors.
What the show trial at issue has demonstrated is not so much the brutality of Hussein but the nudity of the self-appointed champions of global democracy. It has left a bad taste in the mouths of millions of right thinking people the world over. Those who tried him have pathetically failed to be different from him. His lawyers were gunned down and the judicial process was blatantly manipulated against him. It wouldn`t have made any difference even if his hanging had preceded the hearing of the case. For, he would have been hanged any way.
All the leaders, who are all out for Saddam`s blood, having supported him to the hilt during his killing sprees, as we have pointed out previously, must be put in the same dock as he and tried by the same Tribunal, if what has been meted out to him is to be called justice.
It is a grave mistake for justice to be strangulated to facilitate the process of hanging a tyrant.
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