Saddam lashes out at US as trial resumes (AP) Updated: 2005-11-29 07:13
A day after the assassination attempt, whole families were rounded up and
taken to Abu Ghraib prison, he said.
Al-Sheik noted that co-defendant Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former vice
president, headed a committee that ordered orchards — the basis of Dujail's
livelihood — to be destroyed because they were used to conceal the assailants.
At the end of the session, Saddam's half brother and fellow defendant,
Barazan Ibrahim, complained he had not received proper medical treatment since
being diagnosed with cancer and that this amounted to "indirect murder."
Defendant Awad al-Bandar claimed he and Saddam had been threatened in court last
month. The judge told him to submit his complaints in writing.
Amin then adjourned the hearing until next Monday. Saddam's personal
attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, complained the defense needed at least a month.
Amin suspended the hearing for 10 minutes to confer with the four other judges
and then announced that the Monday date was firm.
The slow pace of the proceedings has angered many Iraqis — especially
majority Shiites — who believe Saddam should have already been punished for his
alleged crimes. Shiites and Kurds were heavily oppressed by Saddam's Sunni
Arab-dominated regime.
Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark (L)
breaks for a lunchtime court recess during Saddam Hussein's trial in
Baghdad November 28, 2005. [Reuters] | "Iraqis are
beginning to feel frustrated," said Ridha Jawad Taki, a senior official in the
country's biggest Shiite party. "The court should be more active. Saddam was
captured two years ago. ... The weakness of this court might affect the
verdicts, and this is worrying us."
However, Clark and others argue that a fair trial is impossible in Iraq
because of the insurgency and because the country is effectively under foreign
military occupation, despite U.S. and Iraqi assurances that the trial will
conform to international standards.
Clark, who was attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson, is a
staunch anti-war advocate who met with Saddam days before the 2003 invasion. He
has also consulted several times with one-time Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, who is on trial in The Hague, Netherlands, on war crimes charges.
Saddam's trial has unleashed passions at a time of rising tensions between
the country's Shiite and Sunni communities. Government security services are
dominated by Shiites and Kurds, while Sunni Arabs form the backbone of the
insurgency.
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein speaks
to Presiding Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin in Baghdad November 28,
2005.[Reuters] | In Baghdad, Shiite
businessman Saadoun Abdul-Hassan stayed home Monday to watch the trial on
television but expressed disappointment over the pace.
"Saddam does not need witnesses or evidence. The mass graves are the biggest
witness and he should be executed in order for the security situation to
improve," he said.
In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, however, merchant Adnan Barzan called Saddam
the "legitimate president" of Iraq and said that "those who speak about mass
graves and about Dujail should go see what the new government is doing."
"They will find real mass graves dug by this government and not by the
government of Saddam Hussein," Barzan said.
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