30.12.06

Germans, Europeans Criticize Hussein Execution | Current Affairs | Deutsche Welle | 30.12.2006

Germans, Europeans Criticize Hussein Execution | Current Affairs | Deutsche Welle | 30.12.2006: "However US-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the hanging, saying history would judge Saddam's trial and execution 'harshly.'"

It does not make a favorable statement for the US~kmw

Germans, Europeans Criticize Hussein Execution

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Saddam Hussein's body wrapped in a white shroud following his execution

Saying that Iraqis have missed a chance to deal with its past and might now face further violence, German and other European leaders on Saturday criticized the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Reacting to the news that Saddam Hussein had been hanged in the early hours of Saturday after receiving a death sentence for ordering the murder of 148 men and boys in the Shiite village of Dujail in 1982, German politicians said that they rejected capital punishment in principle.

"We're against the death penalty, no matter where it is applied," Germany Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler told German public radio. He added that the German government had always said that there could be no doubt about the former dictator's crimes.

Opposition politicians also criticized the execution. Free Democrats foreign policy spokesman Wolfgang Gerhard meanwhile called the hanging of Saddam "unacceptable," and said a life sentence would have set a milestone.

Left Party spokesman Gregor Gysi said the execution "did not mark the start of greater democracy in Iraq."

Greens spokesman Fritz Kuhn said Iraqis needed to draw a line under the "chain of death and revenge.

"Saturday's execution hides the danger that supporters of Saddam Hussein will in future regard the ex-dictator as a martyr," Kuhn said.

Europe condemns death penalty

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Saddam Hussein remained defiant during his trial in past months

Others in Europe also commented on the execution.

"The EU condemns the crimes committed by Saddam and also the death penalty," Cristina Gallach, a spokeswoman for Javier Solana, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, told news agency AFP.

France, a staunch opponent of the death penalty as well as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, called on Iraqis to work towards reconciliation and national unity after the execution.

"France calls upon all Iraqis to look towards the future and work towards reconciliation and national unity," the French foreign ministry said in a statement. "Now more than ever, the objective should be a return to full sovereignty and stability in Iraq.

Vatican: "tragic news"

The Vatican called the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein tragic, saying it could feed a spirit of vengeance.

"There is a risk that it feeds the spirit of vengeance and plants the seeds for fresh violence," Vatican spokesman Frederico Lombardi said. The hanging of Saddam Hussein, early on Saturday, was "tragic news", he said on Vatican Radio.

"This is a reason for sadness, even if this is about a person who is guilty of serious crimes. The position of the Catholic church, which is against the death penalty whatever the circumstances, needs to be repeated again," he said. "Putting a guilty person to death is not the way to rebuild justice and reconcile society," Lombardi added.

Britain: Saddam 'held to account'

Britain on Saturday said Saddam Hussein had been "held to account" but reiterated its opposition to the use of the death penalty.

"I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people," said Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. "He has now been held to account."

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Britain still has over 7,000 soldiers in Iraq

Britain was the US' main ally during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and still has some 7,200 troops in the country.

Saddam's execution has put Blair's government in a difficult position however because of its opposition to the death penalty.

"The British government does not support the use of the death penalty, in Iraq or anywhere else," Beckett said. "We advocate an end to the death penalty worldwide, regardless of the individual or the crime.

"We have made our position very clear to the Iraqi authorities, but we respect their decision as that of a sovereign nation," she added. "Iraq continues to face huge challenges. But now it has a democratically-elected government which represents all communities and is committed to fostering reconciliation."

Bush: "An important milestone"

US President George W. Bush meanwhile hailed Saddam Hussein's execution as "an important milestone" on the road to building an Iraqi democracy but warned it would not end deadly violence there.

"Saddam Hussein's execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops," Bush said in a statement released as he prepared to usher in 2007 at his Texas ranch.

Human rights group condemns hanging

However US-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the hanging, saying history would judge Saddam's trial and execution "harshly."

"Saddam Hussein was responsible for horrific, widespread human rights violations, but those acts, however brutal, cannot justify his execution, a cruel and inhuman punishment," said HRW's international justice program director, Richard Dicker.

"The test of a government's commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders," he said. "History will judge the deeply flawed Dujail trial and this execution harshly."

29.12.06

Al Jazeera English - Middle East

Saddam reported hanged

Saddam maintained during his trial that he was still Iraq's rightful president [EPA]

Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president, has been hanged, according to a television station in the region.

Reports on Al Hurra, a US-backed station, said that Saddam was executed shortly before 6am (03:00 GMT) on Saturday.

The former Iraqi president, who was ousted in April 2003 by a US-led invasion, was convicted last month of crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shia villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination attempt in 1982.

An appeals court upheld the death penalty on Tuesday and the Iraqi government rushed through the procedures to hang him by the end of the year and before the Eid al-Adha holiday that starts on Saturday.

The government had kept details of its plans shrouded in secrecy amid concerns that it may provoke a violent backlash from his former supporters with Iraq on the brink of civil war.

Saddam's conviction on November 5 was hailed by George Bush, the US president, as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the invasion almost four years ago.

With U.S. public support for the war falling as the number of American dead approaches 3,000, Washington is likely to welcome the death of Saddam, despite misgivings among many allies about capital punishment.

But the hanging could complicate efforts by Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, to heal Iraq's sectarian divisions as violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims grows and threatens to pitch the country into full-scale civil war.

Oppression

During his three decades in power, Saddam was accused of widespread oppression of political opponents and genocide against Kurds in northern Iraq. His execution means that he will never face justice on those charges.

Saddam insisted during his trial that he was still the president of Iraq. He said in a letter written after his conviction that he offered himself as a "sacrifice".

"If my soul goes down this path [of martyrdom] it will face God in serenity," he wrote in the letter.

Saddam Hussein Executed-

Rut-ro.

Saddam Hussein Executed

Former Iraqi Leader Hanged for Crimes Against Humanity

By Sudarsan Raghavan

Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 29, 2006; 11:02 PM

BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 -- Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who rose from humble beginnings to build the Arab world's most ruthless dictatorship but whose fall unleashed a turbulent era for his nation and the world, was executed early Saturday morning in Baghdad, according to Iraqi state television.

Hussein, 69, who demanded a cultlike devotion from his people and built monuments to proclaim his own greatness, was hanged around 6 a.m. local time (10 p.m. Friday EST) in the American-controlled Green Zone in central Baghdad. Hussein was executed before a small group of observers, including some who had been tortured by his regime.

"Criminal Saddam was hanged to death," state-run Iraqiya television said in an announcement. The station played patriotic music and showed images of national monuments and other landmarks.

The execution took place three days after Iraq's highest court upheld Hussein's death sentence, a decision that meant the execution should take place within 30 days. Last month Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity for the killings of 148 Shiite men and boys from the northern town of Dujail after an attempt on his life in 1982.

Many human rights groups criticized the trial as unfair, delivering nothing more than victor's justice, a charge Iraqi officials denied.

Also hanged on Saturday morning were Hussein's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court.

Sunni Arab loyalists have already vowed to take revenge for Hussein's execution, while many of Hussein's most ardent critics have said they would have loved to have carried out the execution themselves.

"It's like God asking you to choose between heaven and hell," said Thamer al-Musawi, 47, a barber in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood, speaking before the execution. "If Saddam gets executed, you go to hell. If he doesn't, you go to heaven. I will choose hell just so Saddam is executed.

"He is not a human being," Musawi added. "He does not deserve to be alive."

On Wednesday, a farewell letter posted on several Web sites in the name of Hussein declared that he was ready to die and urged Iraqis not to hate the people of the countries that had invaded Iraq, just their leaders. His lawyers said the letter was authentic and had been written Nov. 5, the day his death sentence was pronounced. A portion of it reads:

"Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if God wants He will lift it up to where the first believers and martyrs are, and if His decision is postponed, then He is the most merciful." The letter's authenticity is impossible to verify independently.

On Thursday, Hussein had met in his prison cell with his two maternal half brothers and handed them personal messages, according to his lawyers.

CONTINUED 1 2 Next

Bush and Chancellor Merkel to meet Jan 4th.

Merkel, Bush to Hold Talks on January 4

I hope she can give him a reality check.

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: United States President George W. Bush, right, points out a member of the audience to Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, left, following their speeches at the Gala Dinner of the 100th Anniversary meeting of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. on May 4, 2006. Foto: Ron Sachs +++(c) dpa - Report+++

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Washington on January 4 for talks with US President George W. Bush on issues like the stalled Middle East peace process, the two governments said.

They will also take up efforts to quell violence in Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran's disputed nuclear ambitions, instability in Lebanon and efforts to decide the final status of Kosovo, according to spokesmen for the two leaders.

Because Germany assumes the presidencies of both the European Union and the Group of Eight most industrialized nations on January 1, "the German role on all of these issues will be especially important in 2007," said White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel.

The brief visit will also include a dinner at the White House, German government spokesman Thomas Steg said.

Steg said the discussions would focus on the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq, hopes for progress on peace in the Middle East and Iran's disputed nuclear program.

The chancellor herself said in an interview this month that she wanted to use the meeting to press Bush on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Better relations

Merkel has worked hard to improve German-US relations since taking office a year ago and has won praise from Bush, who fell out with her predecessor Gerhard Schröder over the Iraq war.

Merkel will also present Germany's plans for its presidencies of the G-8 and the EU.

Stanzel said the two leaders would discuss "promoting stability and reconstruction in Afghanistan, advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace (and) supporting the democratically elected government of Lebanon."

They were also to take up "preventing Iran from developing the capability to make nuclear weapons, ending the violence in Darfur, determining the final status of Kosovo, promoting free trade and further transatlantic economic integration, and advancing energy security," he said in a statement.

DW staff / AFP (jam)

27.12.06

Saddam Death Verdict Gets Frown from European Governments

After Iraq's appeals court upheld the death sentence against Saddam Hussein Tuesday, European governments reiterated their opposition to the death penalty. But there was little sympathy for the former dictator.

European governments expressed their opposition to the death penalty, but respected Iraq's sovereignty in dealing with Saddam.

According to Iraqi law, Saddam should be hanged within 30 days. Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government has said it will not shy away from carrying out the sentence. Saddam was convicted in November of crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite men from the village of Dujail.

The German government said Wednesday it was satisfied that that the trial had been both necessary and fair. While stressing that Germany is "categorically opposed to the death penalty," Saddam deserved to be tried for crimes against humanity, said the government's deputy spokesman Thomas Steg.

"There is nothing to indicate the trial, including the appeals process, did not take place in accordance with the rule of law and legal principles in operation in Iraq," Steg said.

The trial helped Iraq "legally come to terms" with its past, the government said.

Britain agreed, saying that Saddam's execution should be left up to the independent Iraqi tribunal, a foreign office spokesman in London told the AFP news agency.

"Our position is unchanged. We are opposed to the death penalty as a matter of principle, but the decision is one for the Iraqi authorities," the spokesman said.

Reconciliation needed

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Saddam reacts against his verdict

France reacted similarly, voicing its opposition to capital punishment, but saying that only Iraq could decide how to punish Saddam.

The French Foreign Ministry said that the decision to execute Saddam should be left up to the Iraqi people and the sovereign authorities in Iraq. France's priority remains to work for the reconciliation of the Iraqi people to restore "complete sovereignty," the statement said.

Italy expressed concern about the death sentence. Italian foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said he feared the execution of Saddam would have negative consequences for reconciliation in Iraq.

My hope would be, when american government is brought to justice for their criminal acts, the same penalty will be imposed.

26.12.06

Children Pick Their Christmas Toys

*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily

*FALLUJAH, Dec 25 (IPS) - Ahmed Ghazi has little reason to stock
Christmas toys at his shop in Fallujah. He knows what children want
these days.*

"It is best for us to import toys such as guns and tanks because they
are most saleable in Iraq to little boys," Ghazi told IPS. "Children try
to imitate what they see out of their windows."

And there are particular imports for girls, too, he said. "Girls prefer
crying dolls to others that dance or play music and songs."

As children in the United States and around the world celebrate
Christmas, and prepare to celebrate the New Year, children in Iraq
occupy a quite different world, with toys to match.

Social researcher Nuha Khalil from the Iraqi Institute for Childhood
Development in Baghdad told IPS that young girls are now expressing
their repressed sadness often by playing the role of a mother who takes
care of her small daughter.

"Looking around, they only see gatherings of mourning ladies who lost
their beloved ones," said Khalil. "Our job of comforting these little
girls and remedying the damage within them is next to impossible."

Hundreds of thousands of children have faced trauma of some sort. And
for others, the lack of a normal life is trauma enough.

Just a lack of entertainment is developing into a serious problem. There
are only 10 cinemas in Baghdad, and two dilapidated public parks. These
are no longer safe for children.

Children do not go out much to play, and they are not sure of home any
more. The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 Iraqis are
fleeing the country every month. The number of Iraqis living in other
Arab countries is now more than 1.8 million. There are in addition more
than 1.6 million internally displaced people within Iraq.

The group Refugees International says that the increasing number of
people fleeing Iraq means that this refugee crisis might soon overtake
that in Darfur. And children suffer most from leaving, and they suffer
most where they go.

"Homeless children are inclined to be rough, and isolated from their new
neighbourhood and new school colleagues," Hayam al-Ukaili, a primary
school headmistress in Fallujah told IPS. "They do not mix in with their
new atmosphere as they should. It is as if they feel it is imposed upon
them, and they simply reject it."

Teachers and social workers say children have begun to nurse a strong
hatred of the United States. No more is the United States the image of a
good life.

"Children have lost hope in the United States and the Iraqi government
after the situation has only worsened every day," Abdul Wahid Nathum,
researcher for an Iraqi NGO which assists children told IPS in Baghdad
(he did not want the organisation to be named).

"Their understanding of the ongoing events is incredible," he said. "It
is probably because the elder members of the family keep talking
politics and watching news. Talking to a 12-year-old child, one would be
surprised by the huge amount of news inside his head, which is not right."

"Children are the most affected by the tragic events," Dr. Khalil
al-Kubaissi, a psychotherapist in Fallujah told IPS. "Their fragile
personalities cannot face the loss of a parent or the family house along
with all the horror that surrounds them. The result is catastrophic, and
Iraqi children are in serious danger of lapsing into loneliness or
violence."

The difficulties of children have become particularly noticeable this
year. "The only things they have on their minds are guns, bullets, death
and a fear of the U.S. occupation," Maruan Abdullah, spokesman for the
Association of Psychologists of Iraq told reporters at the launch of a
study in February this year.

The report warned that "children in Iraq are seriously suffering
psychologically with all the insecurity, especially with the fear of
kidnapping and explosions."

The API surveyed more than 1,000 children throughout Iraq over a
four-month period and found that "92 percent of the children examined
were found to have learning impediments, largely attributable to the
current climate of fear and insecurity."

With nearly half of Iraq's population under 18 years of age, the
devastating impact of the violent and chaotic occupation is that much
greater. Three wars since 1980, a refugee crisis of staggering
proportions, loss of family members, suicide attacks, car bombs and the
constant threat of home raids by occupation soldiers or death squads
have meant that young Iraqis are shattered physically and mentally.

As early as April 2003, the United Nations Children's Fund had estimated
that half a million Iraqi children had been traumatized by the U.S.-led
invasion. The situation has degenerated drastically since then.

A report issued by Iraq's Ministry of Education earlier this year found
that 64 children had been killed and 57 wounded in 417 attacks on
schools within just a four-month period. In all 47 children were
kidnapped on their way to or from school over the period.

Global and Local Affairs ~ by k8