BAGHDAD, 16 June 2004 — His shadow has always hung over Iraq as relentlessly as the sun over the sands. Now, as the clock ticks toward the June 30 handover of power and politicians and media alike begin to comb over the finer details, the spotlight is once again on ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
Imprisoned by US-led coalition forces at a top secret location — rumored to be a high-security prison at Baghdad airport — since he was discovered cowering in a Tikrit bolt hole last December, Saddam is to be tried by an Iraqi tribunal set up for the purpose.
Among the charges he and leading members of his administration are expected to face are genocide and crimes against humanity. Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi declared Monday that all officials from Saddam’s regime who are in US custody, including their one-time leader, would be handed over to Iraqi authorities within the next two weeks.
Their trials are to begin “as soon as possible”, Allawi told Arab television channel Al-Jazeera. Officials from the US-led coalition however have always maintained a somewhat different standpoint, saying that Saddam was one of around 40 prisoners — many of them senior figures in the former regime — who following June 30 would remain in US custody as they posed too great a “security risk” to be handed over.
Observers in Baghdad attributed Allawi’s comments Monday to a desire to appear strong and independent in front of the Iraqi people. The new Iraqi administration, formed at the beginning of the month out of the ashes of the now-dissolved Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), is still struggling with the assumption that it is merely a puppet of US-led occupation interests.
Many members of the new government have spent long years in foreign exile out of sight and mind of ordinary Iraqis, while Allawi himself is one of many senior figures who in exile developed close ties with US and British intelligence agencies, CIA and MI6.
Nobody in Baghdad seems able to believe that the fledgling administration yet has the security apparatus in place confidently to guard Saddam and his top henchmen, but Allawi’s comments have put the US in somewhat of a bind, say analysts.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also said Monday that Saddam and thousands of other prisoners of war must either be charged or released by June 30.
ICRC officials have since his capture twice visited the former dictator, who gave them letters for his wife and two daughters. Spokeswoman Nada Doumani told The Guardian newspaper: “the United States defines Saddam Hussein as a prisoner of war. At the end of an occupation POWs have to be released, provided they have no penal charges against them.”
Any such charges must come from the special Iraqi tribunal set up to deal with Saddam and his cronies, in order that the US distances itself from the proceedings.
The tribunal however is still in its infant stages, with only a handful of investigators and magistrates so far engaged. Concrete charges for Saddam and other senior figures appear some way down the line, say analysts. None of the former dictator’s 40-odd co-accused seem ready to testify against their former boss, reported The Times newspaper in early June, quoting a British official, while the lack of concrete evidence is hampering efforts to build a solid case.
The apparent over-eagerness of the new administration, coupled with the slow progress of the tribunal and frictions between the ICRC and the US following prisoner abuse scandals, is threatening to turn Saddam into a political hot potato.
The capture of the former dictator, trumpeted by the White House as one of the clear-cut success stories of the Iraq adventure, may yet prove to be one of its most troublesome catches. Former IGC member Younadem Kana courted controversy yesterday with the comment: “it is not appropriate to discuss the trial of the former dictator while Iraq remains under occupation.”
New Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawar however made efforts to smooth the waters, telling a Baghdad news conference that the US was “very keen” to hand over Saddam once they were sure the Iraqis could “maintain protection for his life until he goes to trial”.
Some analysts have proposed a compromise deal that would see the Iraqi government take charge of Saddam in name only.
