PARIS, 19 March 2004 — The Kurd magistrate behind the special tribunal charged with judging Saddam Hussein says it will be at least another six months before the former Iraqi leader goes to trial.

In an exclusive interview in yesterday’s French daily Le Figaro, Dara Noureddin Bahaaddin, president of the legal commission of Iraq’s provisional government, says that “although the legal texts have been written, we are still not ready to judge Saddam. We need more time, at least another six months, before we are able to hold the first hearings.”

Clerical staff is in place, but no judges.

“We’ve not yet been able to recruit or officially name the investigators and judges — a total of 60 individuals — who will oversee the hearings.”

He said organizers will need time to listen to the complaints of the victims.

“But above all we first have to tackle the problem of the sovereignty of the Iraqi state,” he added.

The longer the wait the better things will work out, he says. A later trial date could also make it less likely that Saddam will use the hearings to settle a score or to justify his policies, he added.

First Iraqi Officers Graduate in Jordan

In Jordan, the first officers for Iraq’s new military graduated yesterday after 11 weeks of training as part of US-led plans to create an army by Sept. 30 led by Washington-trained Iraqi generals.

A deadly car bomb attack in Baghdad on Wednesday night, however, dampened the graduation ceremony in Zarqa, near Amman, and highlighted the formidable task that lies ahead for the 548 graduates as they start work.

“Hold your head up high you are Iraqi,” shouted the officers, aged from early 20s to early 30s.

“No, no to terrorism,” they chanted at the end of the ceremony, marked with speeches, a poem and a collection of army tunes.

The new officers have been taught to serve their soldiers, said Nigel Aylwin-Foster, deputy commander of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team, a group created last July to build a new armed forces for Iraq.

“That is the fundamental difference between the old army and this one,” the British brigadier told AFP.