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Bush on Saddam handover: Must stay in jail
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-16 08:26
US President Bush insisted Tuesday he must have assurances Saddam Hussein
will stay in jail and not return to power before releasing him to Iraq's interim
government, refusing to commit to the June 30 timetable envisioned by Iraq's new
prime minister.
Raising concerns about security arrangements once Saddam is out of U.S.
custody, Bush said, "He's a killer. He is a thug. He needs to be brought to
trial." Bush said it was legitimate to ask the interim government: "How are you
going to make sure he stays in jail?"
A photo of Saddam Hussein after
his capture is shown during a press conference in Baghdad, in this
December 14, 2003 file photograph. Iraqi Interim President Ghazi al-Yawar,
said June 15, 2004 that toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein would be
handed over to the new government once procedures were in place to protect
his life and give him a fair trial. "The United States is very keen to
hand over the ex-president to the Iraqi authorities. We must first make
sure that we can maintain protection for his life until he goes to trial,"
Yawar said. [Reuters] | Bush's reluctance to turn
over Saddam raised new questions about the extent of Iraq's authority when the
interim government claims sovereignty from the U.S.-led coalition on June 30.
Bush has encountered widespread skepticism from world leaders about whether the
United States truly intends to relinquish control, with 135,000 American troops
remaining in Iraq to maintain security.
Asserting anew that the new government would be sovereign, Bush backed away
from a U.S. confrontation with Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric whose
troops have led an insurgency against the U.S.-led occupation. Bush said it
would be up to the Iraqi authorities to deal with al-Sadr, who has been named by
U.S. officials in an arrest warrant in the assassination of a moderate rival
cleric.
"When we say we transfer full sovereignty, we mean we transfer full
sovereignty," Bush said at a news conference in the Rose Garden with Afghan
President Hamid Karzai. "And they will deal with him appropriately."
In Baghdad, Iyad Allawi, the interim prime minister, had said the United
States would turn over Saddam by the transfer of sovereignty. Saddam has been in
U.S. custody at an undisclosed location in Iraq since his capture in December.
Salem Chalabi, the Iraqi official in charge of setting up a tribunal to try
former government figures, said he expected an arrest warrant filed against
Saddam and other former officials before June 30.
"We have been working quite hard in the last few days on that, believe me,"
Chalabi said.
Chalabi said he believed Iraqi authorities would have grounds for holding
Saddam if and when he was handed over.
Bush said Saddam's transfer would depend on "appropriate security" being in
place.
"I mean, one thing obviously is that we don't want - and I know the Iraqi
interim government doesn't want - is there to be lax security and for Saddam
Hussein to somehow not stand trial for the horrendous murders and torture that
he inflicted upon the Iraqi people," Bush said.
He said he wanted to make sure that "when sovereignty is transferred, Saddam
Hussein ... stays in jail."
"When we get the right answer - which I'm confident we will, we will work
with them to do so - then we'll all be satisfied," Bush said.
In Baghdad, occupation spokesman Dan Senor suggested that U.S. authorities
had grounds to hold Saddam far beyond the handover ceremony, saying the
Americans could keep him "until the cessation of hostilities," which, he said,
weren't expected to stop on June 30.
He said the U.S. goal is to put Saddam "into Iraqi hands sometime after June
30."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said a U.N. Security Council resolution
passed last week gave the United States and its occupation partners the right to
keep prisoners indefinitely.
"It provides authority for the multinational force to continue to detain
individuals in Iraq after June 30 and to detain new individuals where it is
necessary for security purposes," McClellan said. He refused to say who would
decide when it was "necessary for security purposes" for Americans to keep Iraqi
prisoners.
"Certainly the detention policy is one of the fundamental security issues on
which the multinational force and the interim government in Iraq will coordinate
closely," McClellan said.
At his news conference, Bush defended Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion
that Saddam had "long-established ties" with al-Qaeda, an assertion that has
been repeatedly challenged by some policy experts and lawmakers. Bush pointed to
terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is accused of trying to disrupt the transfer
of sovereignty as well as last month's decapitation of American Nicholas Berg.
"Zarqawi is the best evidence of connection to al-Qaeda affiliates and
al-Qaeda," the president said.
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