- CAIRO - In a rare lengthy
press conference during which US President Bush restrained his jubilance
over the capture of Saddam Hussein, he put out a clear message when asked
whether the former Iraqi dictator should receive the death penalty.
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- "I have my personal views. And this is a brutal
dictator. He is a person who killed a lot of people", Bush said.
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- He refused to elaborate further but in any event such
clarification was unnecessary since we know that during the US president's
tenure as governor of Texas there were more executions than ever before
along with a glaring absence of pardons.
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- George W. Bush also refused to confirm that the Iraqis
would be in charge of trying Saddam for his crimes, suggesting only that
they would be involved in the process. Since the US does not recognize
the jurisdiction of the International Court there is only one interpretation
that can be drawn "the US will supervise bringing Saddam to"
justice together with the Iraqi National Congress appointed by it.
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- If this is, indeed, the case, then surely Bush's remarks
are prejudicial to Saddam's trial. Here is the self-styled leader of the
free world hinting that he would like to see his old foe "and the
man who allegedly attempted to assassinate his father" receive the
death penalty. There will be those among the judiciary, whether American
or Iraqi, who might be influenced to give Bush his most fervent wish.
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- Further, there is nobody in the Iraqi council who has
any sympathy for Saddam. There are Shiites, whose people were massacred
by Saddam's forces during the post-Gulf War period when Bush Senior incited
a Shiite uprising, among its members. There are Kurds, whose people were
gassed by Saddam in Halabja. There are exiles, which had previously been
jailed and tortured under Saddam's tenure while others have been fighting
an ideological war against the former Iraqi leader while overseas. And
there is Pentagon darling Ahmed Chalabi, who speaks with the most authoritative
voice. Who, among these can guarantee a fair and just trial for Saddam?
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- The occupying forces have already breached Saddam's rights
as a prisoner of war, when his tonsils were shown on television and his
hair searched for lice. According to the Americans themselves, the humiliating
public display of POWs is a breach of the Geneva Conventions. They were
previously condemned for showing the bruised and bloated corpses of Saddam's
sons after they had strongly warned the Iraqis not to parade the bodies
of dead American soldiers.
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- There are few in the Arab world, which have any love
for Saddam the person. His crimes are legendary and we know that hundreds
of thousands of his own people suffered death and torture at his hands.
Yet, there should be respect due, if not for the man, for the office. He
was an Arab leader and one that was for decades recognized and even befriended
by the US. In fact, many would say he was a creation of a CIA-inspired
coup.
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- Arabs can therefore be forgiven if their joy at Saddam's
capture is tempered by a feeling that not only Saddam has been insulted
and diminished, so has the entire Muslim world. Other barbaric dictators
have come and gone but few have been subjected to such demeaning public
treatment as Saddam Hussein.
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- Former leader of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic has been
facing justice in The Hague for years but we have never had close-ups of
his medical examinations flashed across our screens.
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- Arabs are frustrated by what they term America's double
standards and many believe rightly or wrongly that Arabs are being victimized
by the Bush administration. Now is the time for the US to show that this
isn,t the case.
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- And what better way than to hand Saddam to the United
Nations to undergo trial in Baghdad with impartial Iraqi judges and a jury
selected by a process, which would weed out any kind of bias?
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- Comments from members of the Iraqi Interim Council who
talked with Saddam after his capture and from the American president himself
have illustrated that neither the Iraqi National Congress nor George W.
Bush are fit to take charge of the deliverance of true justice to Saddam.
If Saddam is destined to face a kangaroo court, then the future of democracy
in Iraq along with the much-vaunted Western "values promoted by the
coalition looks bleak.
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- -Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Mideast affairs
and can be contacted at heardonthegrapevine@yahoo.co.uk
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