First witness to testify in Saddam trial

THE first prosecution witnesses are expected to testify today as the trial of Saddam Hussein resumes.

Meanwhile, four aid workers, including two Canadians and a Briton were kidnapped over the weekend, as Iraq’s former prime minister warned that human rights abuses are now as bad as they were under Saddam.

The witnesses are set to describe the deaths of more than 140 Shi’ite villagers following an assassination attempt against Saddam in the town of Dujail in 1982.

If convicted, Saddam and his seven co-defendants could be sentenced to death by hanging.

Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark arrived in Baghdad yesterday, apparently to aid in Saddam’s defence.

Mr Clark, who worked for former US President Lyndon B Johnson, has worked as an adviser to nearly a dozen international lawyers on Saddam’s defence team. He has contended that Saddam’s rights have been violated in the legal process following his capture.

Meanwhile, in an interview published in the Observer, former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi said: “People are doing the same as Saddam’s time and worse. It is an appropriate comparison.”

Mr Allawi accused fellow Shi’ites in the government of being responsible for death squads and secret torture centres.

“These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same thing,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

For months, Sunni Arabs have been accusing the Interior Ministry of wholesale arrests and abuse of Sunnis in an attempt to find a handful of rebels. The discovery by US troops this month of up to 173 detainees - malnourished and some showing signs of torture - hidden in an Interior Ministry building in central Baghdad gave credence to those charges.

The Iraqi government has set up a committee that is investigating the case, but President Jalal Talabani told reporters yesterday that he didn’t think there was a serious problem.

Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary for Canadians abroad, said the four aid workers were kidnapped yesterday, but refused to name the organisation the two Canadians worked for. The British Foreign Office said it was investigating the reports. There were reports that the fourth aid worker is American.

Meanwhile, police arrested eight Sunni Arabs on Saturday for allegedly plotting to assassinate the investigating judge in the case against Saddam Hussein.

The men were carrying a document from former top Saddam deputy Izzat al-Douri ordering them to kill Raed Juhi, said Colonel Anwar Qadir, a police commander in Kirkuk.

Al-Douri is the highest ranking member of the Saddam regime still at large and is believed to be at least the symbolic leader of Saddam loyalists still fighting US forces and the new government in Iraq. The arrest came two days before Saddam’s trial resumes after a five-week break.

US and Iraqi officials have warned of an upsurge in insurgent attacks ahead of the December 15 elections, in which voters will choose the first fully constitutional parliament since Saddam’s rule collapsed in April 2003.

Mr Talabani said yesterday that insurgent groups have responded to his call for talks and have contacted his office.

“We are receiving calls from groups who claim to be from the resistance and they are expressing their support for meetings” with the government, Mr Talabani said. “We want to convince every sincere Iraqi who is carrying arms to come and participate in the political process.”

In Baghdad yesterday, a group of women protested outside the Interior Ministry building, demanding information about their relatives who have been taken by security forces, never to be heard from again.