Iraq sent another of Saddam Hussein’s former henchmen to the gallows on Tuesday as the nation marked the fourth anniversary of the United States-led war still battling a raging insurgency and sectarian conflict.
Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was executed before dawn for crimes against humanity over the killing of 148 Shi’ites in the 1980s, less than three months after the feared former dictator was himself hanged.
”Ramadan was hanged at 3.05am [local time] today [Tuesday],” said Bassem Ridha, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Ramadan, aged almost 70, was the fourth regime official to be executed for his role in the killings of the Shi’ites from the village of Dujail after an attempt on Saddam’s life there in 1982.
”The execution was smooth with no violation,” Ridha said, after an international outcry over the manner of the previous hangings of Saddam and his former cohorts.
Footage of Saddam being taunted then executed on December 30 was circulated on the internet.
The January 15 hanging of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti — Saddam’s half-brother and head of the feared secret police — was particularly gruesome, with his head ripping from the body as he plunged through the metal trap door.
Ramadan ”was very calm and composed. He asked his family and friends to pray for him and said that he was not afraid of death”, defence lawyer Badie Aref said before his execution.
Iraqi leaders say they are determined to punish officials from Saddam’s Sunni-led regime, whose supporters are blamed for much of the continuing bloodletting.
On Tuesday, four car bombs in Baghdad killed nine people and wounded dozens, a day after at least 55 people were killed or found murdered in Iraq.
US President George Bush, facing growing opposition to the war at home, said it would take months to secure the violence-plagued capital and warned that a troop pull-out now would be ”devastating”.
In the four years since the launch of the ”shock and awe” military campaign on March 20 2003, Iraq has descended into a sectarian hell that has left tens of thousands of civilians dead.
Bush pleaded for patience on Monday with his unpopular Iraq strategy and Washington’s revamped efforts to restore order.
”The Baghdad security plan is still in its early stages and success will take months, not days or weeks,” he said.
”It could be tempting to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home. That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating.”
Four years ago on Tuesday, Tomahawk missiles and precision-guided bombs rained down on Baghdad targets as Saddam vowed it would be ”Iraq’s last battle against the tyrannous villains”.
But on April 9, Saddam’s statue in a central Baghdad square was torn down with a rope around the neck, in a premonition of his own hanging.
As the war enters its fifth year, a new poll showed US public opinion had soured further, with just 32% of Americans saying they favoured the war, compared to 72% on the eve of conflict.
A BBC survey said 55% of British people feel the country is less safe now, with only 5% feeling safer since the toppling of Saddam’s regime.
Overall, 29% backed the decision to go to war, with 60% saying it was a mistake, the survey said.
And despite claims by the Bush administration that the month-old US troop surge in Baghdad was beginning to work, another poll by Western media organisations told a story of deep Iraqi pessimism.
Only 18% of Iraqis had confidence in foreign troops, just 38% said the situation was better than before the invasion, and barely a quarter said they felt safe in their own neighbourhoods.
Protests have been staged across the US and in several European cities and Japan against a war that was originally based on a premise of eliminating weapons of mass destruction, which were never found.
Commanders are now pouring 25 000 reinforcements into Baghdad to quell Sunni-Shi’ite fighting, the bloodiest element of the conflict and one which even the Pentagon admits amounts to civil war.
In western and northern Iraq, al-Qaeda pursues its insurgency against the US-backed government, while in the south and centre Shi’ite militias jostle for supremacy and control of oil resources.
The launch of the Baghdad security plan has driven some sectarian death squads from the streets, but car bombs still explode every day, scattering bodies and bloodied debris through crowded markets.
Estimates of Iraqi civilian casualties over the past four years vary wildly, but the Iraq Body Count website figure of 58 800 is among the more conservative.
Two million Iraqis have fled the country and 1,8-million have been displaced within its borders, according to United Nations figures.
At least 3 203 American, 133 British and 124 other foreign soldiers have also died since the invasion.
Iraqi officials point to a Constitution and the creation of a national unity government by an elected Parliament — with 25% of its members women — as signs of progress.
US commanders also point to reconstruction and economic development efforts as the great untold story of the war. Nevertheless, violence and corruption have dogged Iraq’s post-invasion reconstruction. — AFP
