http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=533521
Saddam may face death penalty, say Iraqis
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad and Stephen Khan
21 June 2004
Iraq could execute former leader Saddam Hussein if he is found guilty, the
director of the country's war crimes tribunal system said yesterday.
Salem Chalabi, in charge of setting up a tribunal to try members of the ousted
regime, said that after the Iraqi government gains sovereignty on 30 June, it
will have the power to end the suspension of the death penalty decreed by the
US occupation chief, Paul Bremer.
"The Iraqi government has to affirmatively take that step to lift the
suspension," Mr Chalabi said on television yesterday. "If the suspension
imposed by Ambassador Bremer is lifted there is the possibility of the death
penalty being imposed", on those convicted of murder or rape.
Mr Chalabi said tribunal officials were "negotiating quite intensively with the
coalition forces" about taking custody of Saddam and other detained members of
his regime after the handover of power.
Reports claimed that coalition sources said a deal had been done for the new
Iraqi administration, which would take legal custody of Saddam when it assumes
control of the country on 30 June. US forces will continue to guard him.
In Iraq yesterday, insurgents tightened their grip on the vital airport road in
Baghdad, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding 11 others - four critically -
when they detonated a bomb beside the road as a convoy passed. The US Army
concedes it no longer fully controls the road linking Baghdad to the airport by
insisting that members of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority,
contractors and other foreigners travel on the four-lane highway only at
certain times, totalling six hours a day. During these periods, traffic will be
protected by stepped-up helicopter and vehicle patrols.
The airport road is probably the most important in Iraq, and the loss of the
airport to US forces last year signalled the beginnings of the regime's
collapse. The continued assertions by the Iraqi information minister at the
time that the Iraqi army still held the airport were widely derided abroad.
Baghdad airport is mainly used by the military but there are a small number of
civilian flights. Along the road, palm trees have been cut down and grass and
shrubs burnt to deny guerrillas cover but attacks have increased over the past
month. Roadside bombs, such as that used yesterday, typically consist of old
155mm and 122mm shells detonated either by a command wire or a remote control
like those used to open garage doors or operate a child's toy.
The patrol attacked yesterday consisted of American and Iraqi soldiers. US
soldiers said the ambushers waited for them to pass, then blew up the Iraqi
vehicle. American troops took the Iraq wounded to a US medical treatment
centre. As they waited for news of the wounded, Iraqi soldiers wept and were
hugged by their American comrades, agency reports said.
"The hard-core terrorists don't care who they kill," said Lieutenant-Colonel
Tim Ryan, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment. "These guys
are bigger targets than we are." The implication is that the insurgents are
trying to inflict losses on the fledgling Iraqi army, still only 7,000 strong,
before it can be organised.
Another reason why an Iraqi unit was attacked yesterday is that Iraqi soldiers
are more vulnerable, because they are far less well-armed and protected than
Americans. But the US wants to show Iraqi forces playing an active security
role.
A typical joint US-Iraqi patrol on the airport consists of a US Humvee and, 50
yards back, a truck filled with Iraqi soldiers. The Iraqis, generally, do not
have bullet-proof vests, sometimes do not wear helmets and carry old
Kalashnikovs.
Violence continues at a high level throughout Iraq. On Saturday, there was an
attempt to assassinate the Health Minister, Dr Aladdin al-Alwan, which failed
but was followed by a gun battle in which seven Iraqi policemen were wounded.
Ten Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded in battles with US forces north of
Baghdad. A US Marine was killed in Anbar province west of Baghdad.
In Baghdad there were two loud explosions in the evening, and, earlier in the
day, a mortar round landed near the Central Bank, wounding six policemen and
four civilians. A US air strike in Fallujah on Saturday killed 22 people but
there is still no agreement about who died. The Americans say that the two
houses destroyed were used by militants led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is
blamed for leading the suicide bombing campaign.
But Iraqi officers in Fallujah denied this was true. "We inspected the damage,
we looked through the bodies of the women and children and elderly. This was a
family," said Brigadier Nouri Aboud of the Fallujah Brigade, the force of
former Iraqi soldiers nominally in control of the city. He said there were no
signs of foreigners in the houses, and added: "Zarqawi and his men have no
presence in Fallujah."
• A videotape showing a South Korean hostage begging for his life and
pleading with his government to withdraw its troops from Iraq was broadcast on
the Arab television network al-Jazeera last night. The kidnappers identified
themselves as belonging to a group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which is linked
to al-Qa'ida. They gave South Korea 24 hours to meet its demand or "we will
send you the head of this Korean". A South Korean station said the hostage was
Kim Sun-il, 33, an employee of a South Korean company. It said he was captured
in the Fallujah area.
21 June 2004 02:17
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