War crimes court to try Saddam if caught

A NEW Iraqi war crimes court will try ousted President Saddam Hussein and his top associates, a party in Iraq’s Governing Council said yesterday.

The US-backed council agreed to set up a commission charged with laying down laws, local or international, that would allow it to put suspected war criminals on trial, said Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress.

“The council decided to form a judicial high commission to look into the various types of crimes and to try war criminals,” he said.

“The United States has not declared until now what it’s going to do with the 55 most wanted members of Saddam’s government. The Governing Council will take it upon itself to try them and to punish them according to law,” said Qanbar.

“That includes Saddam Hussein, the biggest criminal,” he said.

The 25-member council was formed on Sunday, the first Iraqi national political body since a US-led invasion toppled Saddam on April 9.

Mr Qanbar said the council also decided to form a commission to look into ways to uproot Saddam’s once all-powerful Ba’ath Party from Iraqi society. The US-led administration of Iraq had banned Saddam’s ruling party and launched a de-Ba’athification process, sacking all senior party members from government jobs.

Mr Qanbar said the council would start with reviewing bylaws for a government before considering naming ministers.

The council has some executive powers, like nominating ministers, changing laws, helping in naming a committee to draft a new constitution and preparing for free elections. But the final say remains in the hands of US administrator Paul Bremer.

Also yesterday, the council voted to send a delegation to the United Nations Security Council and assert its right to represent Baghdad on the world stage.

But in a reminder of the challenges faced by the new council as it takes its initial steps toward what is hoped to be a transition to democracy, violence erupted again yesterday in the capital.

An explosion wrecked a car near the council’s meeting site and yet another US soldier was killed in an ambush.

US President George W Bush called the establishment of the council “an important step forward in the ongoing transition from ruthless dictatorship to a free and democratic Iraq with Iraqis determining their own future”.