BAGHDAD, 28 June 2005 — Iraq’s Tariq Aziz said ousted President Saddam Hussein personally ordered the suppression of a Shiite uprising in 1991 without reference to top aides, in new interrogation footage released yesterday.
Aziz, who rose to the post of deputy prime minister in Saddam’s regime and was one of its best-known faces abroad, said the president had absolute power in such matters, unbridled even by the 10-member Revolutionary Command Council.
“Sometime in the 1980s — I do not remember when — an order came out that the president has the right to issue decrees that would have the force of law without having to consult or discuss these decisions with members of the Revolutionary Command Council,” Aziz told the judge during the interrogation six days ago.
“Who issued this order?” asked the judge of the Iraqi Special Tribunal created to try Saddam and senior aides.
“The president himself,” answered Aziz.
Aziz was asked about the positions he held in March 1991, when thousands of Shiites are believed to have been killed in southern Iraq after they rose up in the aftermath of the rout of Saddam’s invasion force in Kuwait.
“I was foreign minister,” he said.
“Weren’t you also deputy prime minister, member of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) and Baath Regional Command?” pressed the judge.
“Yes,” said Aziz.
He was then asked about a 1991 decree giving regional commanders of the ruling Baath party “amnesty and punishment powers,” and whether, as a member of the RCC, he was notified of the decree.
“It was not part of my scope of work as foreign minister,” he said, dressed in a white jumpsuit and sporting his trademark thick eye-glasses.
After some prompting by the judge, he said: “I heard that some members of the regional command went to the restive areas in the south, but what they did I do not know. They were not reporting to me since I was foreign minister.”
The videotape showed a tired-looking Aziz and a man identified as Saber Abdulaziz Al-Douri being questioned separately about the events surrounding the 1991 uprising.
It was the fifth tape release by the Iraqi Special Tribunal in June and the first to include dialogue from a defendant. Aziz could be heard replying to questions asked by an investigating magistrate. All previous video had no audio. It was unclear why parts of Aziz’s testimony could be heard when previous defendants were muted out.
Al-Douri can only be heard on the video confirming his name and job as a former intelligence chief under Saddam.
Aziz’s lawyer, Badee Izzat Aref, is also shown on the video taking notes.
The video was released one day after the tribunal issued another showing two of the ousted dictator’s half brothers being questioned about their alleged role in displacing and killing Kurds.
In releasing that video on Sunday, the tribunal also sought to put an end to speculation over the date Saddam’s trial will begin. It said it was the only body authorized to take such a decision and that any other comments “are just predictions.” It has in the past said no trial date has been set.
Previous videos have included one that showed Saddam being questioned at the beginning of June.
