Yesterday was another historic day for Iraq. Saddam Hussein and 11 of his henchmen made their first appearance before an Iraqi court. Nothing about the fallen dictator’s defiant behavior should surprise anyone. Of course he does not admit the right of the court to judge him. He never in his long and wicked political career accepted the rule of law. His contempt for the proceedings was therefore completely predictable.
He knows that he is fighting for his life. The man who postured so much on the world stage intends to make the most of the opportunity to grandstand and protest in open court. In his last days in power he must have watched fellow dictator Slobodan Milosevic before the international court in The Hague.
Neither Saddam nor Milosevic ever gave any of their victims the chance to defend themselves so fairly, but the irony is no doubt lost on both.
For many Iraqis the sight of the man they feared for so long being called to account for his crimes will bring closure. But the discovery of mass graves goes on. The collating of the names of victims continues. It could be that in the 35 years in which Saddam ruled Iraq, first from behind the scenes and then after 1979 as unchallenged tyrant, as many as one million Iraqis disappeared.
Some Iraqis have been calling for his immediate execution. They see no point in a trial. They are wrong. First of all, the world must see that the new Iraq is judging with decency and dignity the man who crushed them in his reign of terror. To take the tyrant out and kill him would besmirch the future. It would lower the new Iraq to the same level as Saddam’s regime.
The second reason is even stronger. It is not simply the arrogant and unrepentant Saddam and his cronies who are on trial. The whole culture of government by the rule of terror is being made to stand in the dock. Saddam and his creatures are yesterday’s men. The terrorists who still seek to resist the march of time with bombs and assassination belong to the past. They are all dead men. Their brand of remorseless oppression is being rejected by the international community.
Iraqis know how weak they still are in the face of the implacable attacks of terrorists, but as the enormities perpetrated by Saddam’s regime are laid bare in forensic detail in the coming full trial, they will gain a bitter strength. That power will grow with their determination not to return to the terrifying days from which, however chaotically, they finally escaped 16 months ago. Between now and the end of the judicial process that will lay bare the depravities of Saddam’s rule, virtually all Iraqis are likely to say to each other, many times over: “Never Again.”
With that conviction must come the clear realization that it will only be through compromise and tolerance that a strong and decent new Iraq can be built.
