Iraq’s interim prime minister said on Monday that he will not interfere with an Iraqi tribunal’s right to decide whether Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants should be executed on war crimes charges, the Arab language television station Al-Arabiya reported.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he is willing to abide by whatever the court decides in the trial, which is not expected to begin for months. Iraq assumed legal custody of Saddam from the United States last week and reinstituted the death penalty, which had been suspended by US occupation authorities.
”As for the execution, that is for the court to decide — so long as a decision is reached impartially and fairly,” he said.
Saddam’s first court appearance on Thursday dominated the media across Iraq and revived debate over his eventual fate. The broadly outlined charges include the slaughter of Shi’ites during a 1991 uprising and a chemical weapons attack against Kurds in the northern city of Halabja.
Thousands of Kurds demonstrated on Monday in Halabja, demanding that Saddam and one of his key lieutenants — Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as ”Chemical Ali” — be put to death for the gas attack that killed 5 000 people on March 16 1988. Carrying photos of their slain loved ones, the marchers said they want Saddam to be tried and executed in their town.
”Every family in this city lost no less than five of its dear sons,” said one demonstrator, Sabiha Ali (50). ”Therefore, we want to execute Saddam on the soil of the land.”
Iraq has been wracked by lawlessness and violence since the fall of Saddam’s regime 14 months ago.
Iraq’s oil exports were cut nearly in half as workers struggled on Monday to repair a key pipeline shut down after looters sabotaged the line, officials with the South Oil Company (SOC) and traders said.
The looters, trying to steal crude oil for sale on the black market, breached one of the country’s two key southern pipelines, said an SOC official speaking on condition of anonymity.
Also on Monday, a land mine detonated along the main route to the southern city of Samawah, where Japanese troops are based, police officials said. There were no reports of injuries. The route is used frequently by coalition forces.
In southern Iraq, insurgents fired rockets at a government building early on Monday, but instead struck nearby homes, killing one person and wounding eight others, police said. The attack targeted the province’s main offices near the centre of the Basra.
Interior Ministry officials also announced on Monday the capture of two Iranians suspected of trying to detonate a car bomb, but gave no further details.
Iraqi officials have blamed foreign fighters and religious extremists for a wave of vehicle bombings in recent months. The attacks have led to fears that religious fanatics and Saddam loyalists may be joining forces to fight both the multinational force and the new Iraqi government.
Iraqi troops thwarted a car bombing outside their regional headquarters northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing an attacker before he could detonate his vehicle. Two bystanders also died in the assault in Baqouba, the scene of fierce fighting last week between American soldiers and insurgents who tried to seize government buildings and police stations.
Also in Baqouba, gunmen fired at a building belonging to a city council official in the town of Khalis on Sunday, killing two people and wounding two, said Salih Mahdi, the spokesperson for the Diyala province.
Iraqi government officials have suggested that tough moves will soon be taken to combat the violence, but cancelled a news conference on Monday where they had been expected to announce a limited amnesty for insurgents and martial law in parts of the country.
The news conference with Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan and Human Rights Minister Bakhtiyar Amin was postponed indefinitely just as it was scheduled to begin. The government had cancelled a previous news conference on the same topic.
Britain and Australia offered support on Monday for the proposed amnesty offer. Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer agreed that the interim Iraqi government is entitled to make such decisions.
The delay in deciding on security measures came only hours after Moqtada al-Sadr, the militant Shi’ite cleric whose uprising last April left hundreds dead, issued a defiant statement calling the new interim Iraqi government ”illegitimate”.
”We pledge to the Iraqi people and the world to continue resisting oppression and occupation to our last drop of blood,” al-Sadr said in a statement distributed by his office in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf, where his al-Mahdi militia battled American troops until a ceasefire last month. ”Resistance is a legitimate right and not a crime to be punished.”
Previously, al-Sadr had made conciliatory statements to the new government of Allawi, a fellow Shi’ite, and members of his movement had suggested they might transform the al-Mahdi Army into a political party. Al-Mahdi fighters accepted ceasefires in most Shi’ite areas after suffering huge losses at the hands of the Americans.
It was unclear what prompted his apparent reversal, though al-Sadr has made contradictory statements in the past.
In his statement on Sunday, the young cleric said, ”There is no truce with the occupier and those who cooperate with it.”
”We announce that the current government is illegitimate and illegal,” al-Sadr said. ”It’s generally following the occupation. We demand complete sovereignty and independence by holding honest elections.”
Earlier on Sunday, Allawi told America’s ABC television that he had met with al-Sadr representatives ”who want to try and mediate”.
”The position of the government is very clear,” Allawi said.
”There is no room for any militias to operate inside Iraq. Anything outside law and order is not tolerated, cannot be tolerated. The rule of law should prevail.”
Al-Sadr’s harsh statement suggested the government may be taking a hard line with him, insisting he abolish his militia and submit to the warrant.
Although Iraq regained sovereignty last Monday, about 160 000 foreign troops, most of them Americans, remain in the country under a United Nations resolution to help the new government restore security. — Sapa-AP
Amnesty for Iraqi insurgents