Iran Pushes for Hussein to Face CW Charges

Iran yesterday pressed Iraq to accept its indictment charging former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with using chemical weapons and committing other crimes when the two countries went to war in the 1980s, the IRNA News Agency reported (see GSN, Oct. 19).

The indictment includes “the crimes the Iraqi dictator perpetrated against Iranian soldiers through violation of [the] Geneva Convention concerning Iranian prisoners of war, and use of unconventional and chemical weapons against Iranian solders,” according to Iran’s judiciary.

Iran alleges: that Hussein’s forces bombed houses, schools and mosques; used chemical weapons; committed genocide and crimes against humanity; violated international treaties and Islamic ethics and principles; and killed women, children and clerics, IRNA reported (IRNA News Agency, Nov. 22).

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani pledged that Hussein would face charges for crimes committed against Iran, Agence France-Presse reported, citing reports from IRNA.

“I promised to look into the charges being put on the tribunal’s agenda,” Talabani said yesterday on the last day of a visit to Iran (Agence France-Presse, Nov. 23).

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