Arab News Team
AMMAN — The Arab street was divided yesterday in its opinion on the verdict in the Saddam case. Some Arabs saw him as the victim of a US-inspired show trial while Kuwaitis, who suffered a seven-month Iraqi occupation in 1990-91, applauded the Baghdad court’s decision.
Prominent Jordanian lawyers denounced the verdict as pre-decided by the US-led occupation forces. They saw no possibility of the appeals court reversing the rulings, “because justice cannot be guaranteed for the defendants under the present political and security setup in Iraq.”
“We believe that the verdicts have been prepared beforehand, because what we have seen so far is nothing but a theatrical play,” Chairman of the Legal Committee at the Jordanian lower house of Parliament, Ghaleb Al-Zoabi, said.
His opinion was shared by the head of the Amman-based Arab Human Rights Organization, Hani Dahleh, who said “there is no chance whatever for overruling such verdicts by the Iraqi appellate courts, which are virtually subject to the will of the US military.”
In Bahrain, parliamentary candidate for upcoming elections Sheikh Ibrahim Bu Sandal said Saddam was the personification of tyranny and what happened to him was a drop in the sea compared to what he did to his people.
“We have a lot of Saddams in the region. He is the first to be convicted and I hope that the others would follow,” he said.
“I also hope that US President George W. Bush is brought to trial for his crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, because these are no less serious than those committed by Saddam,” Bu Sandal added.
Muhammad Al-Sabri, a Yemeni political analyst, said the verdict would likely trigger more violence not only in Iraq, but also in other countries.
“This show trial has been watched on TV by hundreds of millions of Arabs, and the seeds of violence have been disseminated throughout the region by this ruling,” Al-Sabri said.
Jamal Anaam, a prominent commentator, agreed. “Although Saddam is not an effective factor in the Iraqi arena now, this verdict will bring more tension to the already terrible situation in Iraq,” Anaam told Arab News.
“It was an Arab leader being ridiculed in a courtroom in front of TV cameras, and such a situation makes people feel frustrated,” Anaam explained.
“We would have celebrated if the verdict was to hang all American soldiers in Iraq,” said Yemeni student Yousef Melfi.
Hamid Al-Mohkami, a schoolteacher in Sanaa, dismissed the trial as a charade, but said Saddam deserved to die anyway.
“This is good news,” Kuwaiti political analyst and former Oil Minister Ali Al-Baghli said. “Saddam deserves to be hanged because of the atrocities he inflicted on his people for the past 35 years and on his neighbors also. He sent millions of people to their deaths.”
There was widespread sympathy for Saddam among Palestinians who had admired him for defying the United States and for firing missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War. He also sent money to families of Palestinian fighters.
“I am very sad today. Giving the death penalty to the Iraqi president is oppression, it is unfair,” said weeping housewife Najah Jabajy, 30, in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Osama Issa, a 23-year-old tradesman, said: “This is an insult to the Arabs. Saddam committed big mistakes. But look at Iraq today: Blood and daily massacres.”
Asked about Syria’s view of the verdict, Information Minister Muhsin Bilal told reporters in Damascus: “Any trial conducted under occupation is illegitimate.”
Mustafa Al-Sayyid, political scientist at Cairo University, described the trial as “victor’s justice,” adding: “The law on the basis of which this trial was conducted was not an Iraqi law but a foreign law, imposed by occupation authorities.”
Magdi Mohamed Ahmed, a 51-year-old Egyptian street vendor, decried what he called a “show trial sponsored by America” and said Saddam would die a “martyr for his nation.”
Iran said it hoped Saddam would still be brought to book for offenses Tehran accuses him of committing during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Ali Farhoudi, a 38-year-old veteran of that conflict, expressed a widely held view among Iranians that the noose was too merciful a punishment for the former Iraqi president. “What I have suffered during the war will never be compensated, even if he is hanged 100 times,” Farhoudi said.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said his country welcomed the verdict.
Watching the verdict on TV, some Pakistanis in Islamabad said Americans wanted to kill him because he had fired a few Scud missiles at Israel. Others questioned the fairness of the trial when American and British troops were in occupation of that country.
“The Iraq chapter for Americans is over. They will divide it into three zones before they leave the country,” Najam Sethi, chief editor of Daily Times and Friday Times told Arab News” adding that before their departure the Americans will try to use the Tariq Aziz card.
He said ever since the US occupation of Iraq, Tariq Aziz has been treated like a VIP by the Americans. Sethi was of the view that the “Americans will never execute Saddam and instead use him for their next agenda.”
Iraq remained a countervailing factor for the Americans viz Iran till the late 80s and even now they have not closed the chapter. The could use it in some other form in the future.”
Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali, a former foreign minister of Pakistan, said: “I do not agree with the timing of the verdict. It has a strong linkage to the American midterm election. It will further deteriorate the situation in the region. The entire Middle East will face the consequence.”
He said that the trial was not conducted in accordance with the law, adding in jest that there is no law in Iraq. What law? There’s a civil war going on.
An Arab journalist based in Islamabad, Abdul Rehman, said, “Saddam Hussain should not have been given the death sentence after all he was the president of that country.”
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett also welcomed the fact that Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants had “been held to account for their crimes,” contrasting with a muted response from French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy who merely “took note” of the decision which “belonged to the Iraqi people
The celebrations in Baghdad came despite a 12-hour curfew was placed on the city and on three nearby provinces, including Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, where thousands came onto the streets to show support for the former leader.
— Abdul Jalil Mustafa, Mazen Mahdi, Khaled Al-Mahdi and Azhar Masood contributed to this report
