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Hussein Genocide Trial to Begin Monday
The genocide trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and six members of his regime is scheduled to begin Monday, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 27). Hussein and his fellow defendants are charged with directing the “Anfal Campaign” that is believed to have killed 100,000 Iraqi Kurds from 1987 to 1988. A chemical attack on the town of Halabja alone is thought to have killed 5,000 people. The trial before the Iraqi High Tribunal is expected to last a number of months, and to be followed by further cases. Hussein and seven regime officials are already awaiting sentencing for the 1982 deaths of 148 Shiite Muslims in the town of Dujail. Among those charged in the genocide case is Ali Hassan al-Majid, also know as “Chemical Ali” for his suspected direction of the chemical attacks (Dave Clark, Agence France-Presse I/Independent Online, Aug. 18). Human rights observers worry that procedural mistakes that dogged the first trial against Hussein could undo efforts to convict him of genocide, AFP reported. “There is strong evidence of genocide against the former regime, but based on our observations from the Dujail massacre trial, we believe the court is ill-equipped to conduct a trial of such a magnitude against a head of state,” said Nehal Bhuta of Human Rights Watch. “In our assessment the judge, the prosecution and the defense do not have an understanding of international criminal law, and genocide is the most serious of international crimes,” he added. Defendants in the Dujail trial at times walked out and boycotted the proceedings. Three defense attorneys were killed and the first chief judge resigned, AFP reported. “We saw in the Dujail trial a lot of political pressure to speed it up and reach the verdict as soon as possible even as the court suffered from dozens of procedural flaws,” Bhuta said. International advisors are needed for the Anfal trial, analysts said (Jay Deshmukh, Agence France-Presse II, Aug. 18).
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