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Hussein to Face CW Charges in Later Trial Rounds
Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is scheduled to go on trial by early fall on charges involving the 1982 killings of nearly 160 men from a Shiite village north of Baghdad, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, May 20). Officials of the Iraqi Special Tribunal have said Hussein will eventually face similar trials for other atrocities, including chemical weapons attacks in the 1980s against dozens of Kurdish villages and towns, including Halabja. The Iraqi transitional government has long favored an early trial for Hussein, while U.S. officials have said they preferred trying at least some of his aides first, in order to build a pattern of “command responsibility” leading to Hussein — an approach likely to have delayed the trial until 2006, according to the Times. The Baghdad government led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said yesterday it wanted the Hussein trial to begin within two months. “It is the government’s view that the trial of Saddam should take place as soon as possible,” said Laith Kubba, spokesman for Jaafari. He added that the government preferred to concentrate on 12 “fully documented cases,” which he said would guarantee Hussein a death sentence. U.S. officials, who have provided more than $75 million for the court, offered no comment on the decision. While the move to hasten the trial was understandable, it contains drawbacks, Cherif Bassiouni, a law professor and expert on Iraqi law at DePaul University said yesterday. Instead of waiting for Iraqis to enact their own laws, Bassiouni said the Baghdad government would have to use laws established by U.S. authorities, which “would lack credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of the Iraqi people and other Arabs.” In addition, whether or not Hussein will face trial for his role in Iraq’s war with Iran in the 1980s — in which the Baghdad government used chemical weapons — remains decided, tribunal officials said yesterday. The Jaafari government last month signed a joint communique with Tehran accepting Hussein’s responsibility for starting the war, the Times reported. U.S. officials wrote a provision for war-crimes investigations into the statute establishing the tribunal last year, but they have also cautioned that charging Hussein with violations involving the Iran-Iraq war would expose Baghdad to demands for heavy reparations (John Burns, New York Times, June 6).
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