Saddam Hussein refused to enter a plea as he and six former army commanders went on trial in Baghdad on Monday on charges of killing tens of thousands of Kurdish villagers in a genocide campaign in 1988.
The former president again challenged the legitimacy of the United States-sponsored special tribunal, which is already trying him on separate charges, and refused to give his name, telling the chief judge: ”You know my name”.
Chief judge Abdullah Ali al-Aloosh entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
One of Saddam’s co-defendants is his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as ”Chemical Ali” for allegedly ordering poison-gas attacks.
Looking frail and walking with a cane, al-Majid introduced himself as ”first major general”. Al-Aloosh entered an innocent plea for Majid after he told the court: ”I would remain silent”.
The seven defendants face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in a 1988 military offensive codenamed Anfal — the Spoils of War — after the title of a chapter of the Qur’an.
Saddam and Majid face the additional, graver charge of genocide. All the main charges carry the death penalty.
Iraqi forces are accused of using mustard gas and nerve agents in the seven-month campaign, which Kurds say killed more than 100 000 people and displaced tens of thousands more.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said the campaign had involved weapons of mass destruction, air strikes and the deportation of the elderly, women and children to detention camps, ”not because they committed crimes but because they were Kurds”.
Saddam and his co-accused are likely to argue that their crackdown was justified because Kurdish rebels and their leaders had committed treason by forming alliances with arch-enemy Iran.
Judges are considering their verdict in the other case involving the killing of 148 Shi’ite Muslim men following a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam in the town of Dujail.
But the killings of three defence lawyers in the first trial have prompted concern among international monitors and given the defence grounds to disrupt proceedings.
As with the Dujail case, the court will hear evidence from victims. But prosecutors also expect for the first time to make use of forensic data from mass graves.
The deaths of about 5 000 people in the Kurdish town of Halabja in March 1988 form the basis of a separate trial to be held later. — Reuters