Al-Douri: Hangmen killed an Arab 'hero'

(AP)
Updated: 2006-12-30 15:21

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The Arab world has lost a "hero" who championed Arab unity and battled the influences of Iran and Israel, Saddam Hussein's former United Nations ambassador said here Saturday.

Mohammed al-Douri said Saddam's hanging marks the latest "big mistake" of a US occupation that has dragged Iraq into an era of unprecedented suffering.

"The Arab nation has lost a hero. So have all of those who are against Iran and Israel and for Arab unity. Those were his goals, whether he succeeded or not," said al-Douri, the highly visible UN ambassador who spoke out in New York against the Bush administration's war plans in the run-up to the US invasion in 2003.

Al-Douri left his post after Saddam was pushed from power and fled into exile in the United Arab Emirates, where he lives. The former ambassador said he felt a pang of regret at Saddam's death and felt sorry for Saddam's surviving relatives, but that his thoughts were with the Iraqi people.

"It is sad, all the killings in the past and today, and the killings yet to come," al-Douri said. "We are human beings. We are not animals. You should feel sorry for all kinds of death and suffering. Saddam governed Iraq for 35 years. He's a human being, good and bad. But he's still a human being."

Al-Douri accused the Bush administration of rushing Saddam's execution so Washington could claim a small victory in a four-year project that, he said, has destroyed Iraq. He said Saddam's hanging would have little effect on an insurgency and civil warfare that was not being fought in Saddam's name.

Of the Bush administration he said, "They think this is a victory, the execution of President Saddam. They have no other victory to claim. There is no new Iraq, no new democracy, no example for the region. It was a failure. Now they have that man's execution on their hands."