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Karl Schembri
Defiant till the last minute, Saddam Hussein was executed at the gallows in Baghdad just before daybreak yesterday in what is believed to be the closing of a chapter in Iraqi history. But is it?
In his last letter written on 5 November, Saddam described himself as having “remained a sword and a banner” – words that might become truer for his Sunni followers now that he is gone.
The execution was carried out despite calls and warning signs from both European and Arab leaders that it would be the worst way to close this bloody chapter.
The execution was also timed to coincide with Aid al Adha – the second most important festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of the Hajj – the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The symbolism couldn’t be more uncanny: while Saddam proclaimed himself the sacrificial lamb of his country, Aid al Adha is the celebration of when Allah is believed to have appeared to Abraham in a dream asking him to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God.
George Saliba, former Maltese ambassador in the Gulf region and in Libya, says the timing means that Muslim families will be celebrating the feast, possibly postponing their outbursts in the streets: “It’s deeply humiliating for all Sunnis to see Saddam executed in that way, despite his brutal, murderous past. Saddam went for his execution with his head held high, as if he was still in command. The Arab streets will be enraged, although there will be little or no demonstrations because of the Aid celebrations.”
Disagreeing with his execution, Saliba described it as “a terrible mistake” especially since it happened under the patronage of the Americans. “It was the Americans themselves who installed Saddam in power, so whoever has the US support today knows that it might not be there tomorrow.”
Anthropologist Ranier Fsadni disagrees however that Sunnis will be up in arms over Saddam’s execution. “I don’t think Saddam was a rallying figure for most of the Sunni Iraqis,” he said. “They want a safe Iraq that would treat them equitably – hardly what Saddam had offered them under his rule.
“Few people will weep after his demise, which doesn’t mean that the majority of people believe justice was done in a transparent manner,” Fsadni added. “There are big questions on the fairness of the trial in which three of the defence lawyers were assassinated. The Shias will also remember that Saddam was tried for crimes committed in 1982, when he had the backing of western powers and the Gulf Arab states.”
Echoing the EU’s official position, Foreign Minister Michael Frendo said Malta was against capital punishment, “even in the case of Saddam Hussein – a brutal dictator who had no respect for other people’s lives.”
He added “the Iraqis should now look forward to rebuilding their country in a spirit of reconciliation.”
International relations expert Prof. Stephen Calleya says it is clear Saddam’s supporters will carry out more violence in the wake of his execution in the short term, but the whole episode should hopefully serve to close a chapter of Iraqi history.
“I personally think his execution was a mistake, the EU’s position was absolutely correct in advocating a life sentence, but now that it happened I expect it to bring the closure of this part of Iraqi history and one of the most important countries in the Arab world.”
The most crucial question, Prof. Calleya says, is: what happens next? “We have to see the extent to which this sense of closure will contribute to the necessary decisions to be taken, particularly that of having a political situation that is truly representative of the Sunnis, the Shias and the Kurds. One hopes there will be a major rethink of the way Sunnis are represented – their exclusion was the biggest mistake made from day one. Hopefully now they will be included and this event will serve to start afresh, a turning of the page if you like. If that doesn’t happen, then the repercussions in Iraq and the whole region will be disastrous.”
Fsadni is equally hopeful that the execution will mark a sense of closure of history for the majority of Iraqis.
“It appears that 12 out of 18 Iraqi provinces are not experiencing any or much violence currently,” he said. “It does appear that life in these provinces is better now than in the Saddam era. For them his execution will definitely mark the closing of a chapter in their history. Whether he needed to be executed for this sense of closure is an open question. He could have been sentenced to a definitive life imprisonment, possibly in another country.”
Warning signs from the Arab press
Newspapers in the Arab world gave clear warning signs that Saddam’s execution would create even more tension in Iraq and in the whole region, with some commenting that the former dictator would have been much more useful alive.
“He will go to the gallows with his head held high because he built a strong, united and non-sectarian Iraq,” commented the influential London-based Pan Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi in its front page, urging the current Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to “apologise and face the national courts of Iraq” on charges of legalising the killing of hundreds of thousands of people and wounding even more.
“We demand they be tried on charges of igniting a civil sectarian war, exercising the ugliest forms of genocide, stealing public funds, and collaborating with foreigners against their country and people,” the paper insisted. “And we doubt their punishment should be less than death by hanging.”
The same independent Palestinian-owned newspaper’s editorial commented that US officials made a new mistake more dangerous than any in the past. “They think executing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will lead to calm in Iraq, but the exact opposite is likely to happen. The US Administration may gain more by keeping Saddam alive behind bars and using him as a bargaining card... to negotiate with the Baath party for the sake of calm.”
Another London-based newspaper, Al-Hayat, carried a comment describing Saddam’s execution as “worse than the crimes he committed against his opponents”. While it was impossible to defend Saddam and be lenient with him, he deserved to be punished “in an Iraq with democracy and the rule of law”, the Saudi-owned newspaper said.
“Worse than Saddam is dismantling his regime and opening the doors to the unknown, in dismantling the Iraqi army ... and forming death squads to assassinate innocent people according to their [sectarian] identity,” it stressed.
Worse than Saddam, it went on to say, are those who allow the killing of Iraqis and Iraqi politicians who execute external agendas at the expense of their own country. It predicted that many people were awaiting the celebration of Saddam’s death to take revenge for their loved ones. “But the scene will multiply the pain as Saddam’s corpse will enflame sentiments and consolidate the plan to eradicate Iraq,” it said, adding that those who are happy to see Iraq as it is today will in the future “cry over Saddam.”
Jordanian newspaper Al-Ray slammed the US, the UK and the ruling parties in Iraq for not having been able to provide Iraqis with a better Iraq than Saddam’s.
“He remains a symbol for the failure of the occupation and its project,” a columnist wrote.
Another Pan Arab daily, Al-Alamiyah, urged “parties, organisations, national and Islamic figures and official bodies in Arab countries to engage in a public, political and human rights action against the Maliki government’s adventure – supported by the US and Iran – to execute Saddam. This is a political execution which will lead to violence. It is in the interests of the occupation and its agents, and Iran and its allies, for Saddam not to be executed, and for the crisis to be solved through serious dialogue.”
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
Reign of terror: Abu Ghraib under Saddam
One prisoner told me he was seventeen and was the youngest prisoner and so they made him sweep the corridors of the internal security headquarters every morning at seven o’clock. He saw a peasant woman from the south with tattoos, he said, a woman from the marshes with a girl of ten and a boy of about six. She was carrying a baby in her arms. The prisoner told me that as he was sweeping, an officer came and told the woman: “Tell me where your husband is – very bad things can happen.” She said: “Look my husband takes great pride in the honour of his woman. If he knew I was here, he would have turned himself in.” The officer took out his pistol and held the daughter by the braids of her hair and put a bullet into her head. The woman didn’t know what was happening. Then he put a bullet in the boy’s head. The woman was going crazy. He took the youngest boy by the legs and smashed the baby’s brain on a wall. You can imagine the woman. The officer told the young prisoner to bring the rubbish trolley and put the three children in it, on top of the garbage, and ordered the woman to sit on the bodies. He took the trolley out and left it. The officer had got into the habit of getting rid of people who were worthless.
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