Irish bishops say Saddam’s execution ‘will not serve justice’

IRISH bishops have condemned the death sentence imposed on deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The Catholic Bishops’ Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs (ICJSA) warned that Saddam’s hanging would spark only further violence in the region.

His imposed execution was contrary to the common good, they said.

Bishop Raymond Field said he disagreed with the court in Baghdad.

“I disagree with the Iraqi High Tribunal’s verdict of the death sentences imposed on Saddam Hussein and some of his colleagues.

“While the court found him guilty of crimes against humanity for ordering hundreds of Shias killed or tortured in the town of Dujail in 1982, it is contrary to the common good that he and his colleagues should be executed in this case,” Bishop Field, the chairman of the commission, said.

The comments were made while Saddam Hussein appeared in court on additional charges of genocide in connection with the Anfal campaign against the Kurds in 1988, in which over 180,000 people allegedly died. That trial will continue until Saddam’s appeal against the verdict in the Dujail case is heard.

But the bishops think his public killing will not serve any long term justice.

Bishop Field backed words from the Vatican on Monday in which a senior cardinal said one crime could not be punished by another, namely the death sentence. Bishop Field stressed: “It is clear from the public response to the tribunal’s verdict that its decision has further polarised Shia and Sunni Iraqis. Furthermore, society in Iraq has never been more dysfunctional and those who suffer most in these circumstances are ordinary Iraqi people. Let us remember in our prayers those who have suffered injury and death during this conflict, from all sides, and let us pray also for a satisfactory and speedy end to armed hostilities in the country and region.”

The comments from the commission come after a similar condemnation by the Irish Government over the decision to impose the death sentence. Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern welcomed the end of the long legal case on the weekend. However, his department said Ireland and its EU partners had made it clear inthe past to Iraqi authoritiesof their opposition to courtsapplying the death sentence.