Quiet Iraq stops to watch Saddam trial on TV

Violence-scarred Iraq enjoyed a rare day of relative peace today, as residents made special efforts to watch on television the opening of Saddam Hussein’s trial for genocide.

“I’m happy to see justice taking its course today,” said Haider Kadhim, 28, the owner of an electronics shop in Baghdad, a city that suffers from chronic power shortages.

Kadhim said he had bought 20 litres of petrol for his generator to make sure he had the electricity needed to watch the trial, which was broadcast on all local channels with a 20-minute delay. This was to ensure that sensitive portions with security implications could be censored.

“It is shameful that Saddam should claim he is the president and commander in chief of the armed forces,” said Kadhim, referring to Saddam’s self-introduction when he was asked by the judge to identify himself for the record.

It was not clear if the trial – which had Iraqis glued to their television sets at homes, offices and coffee shops – was responsible for the unusually low level of violence in the country today. Three soldiers and a civilian were gunned down in separate incidents in Baghdad. Two US Marines and a sailor were killed yesterday in Anbar province, west of Baghdad.

No deaths or violent incidents were reported today from any other part of the country.

Saddam and six members of his former Sunni-dominated regime are on trial in connection with the Iraqi army’s “Operation Anfal” – Arabic for “spoils of war” – in 1987-88 against ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq.

The precise death count has never been documented but estimates range from 50,000 to well over 100,000.

If convicted, Saddam faces the death penalty, the same punishment he faces in another trial on charges that he ordered the killing of 148 Shia Muslims in Dujail town in 1982.

“My dream came true today,” said Mohammed Amin, 86, whose three sons were killed during the Anfal operations. He had joined a crowd of people watching the trial on TV in a coffee shop in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. “I’ll be watching this trial until its end to convey the good news to my sons in heaven,” he added.

Also in Sulaimaniyah, more than 1,000 survivors and relatives of the Anfal victims held a demonstration, demanding death for Saddam. Some wept as they recalled the tragedy and others expressed happiness that he was being tried.

But there was grudging sympathy for Saddam among some residents.

“We all agree that there was genocide and crimes against humanity, but there are other parties who are involved in this or backed it then,” said Salman Dawood, 45, a Sunni who owns a real estate business in Baghdad.

“It’s unfair to try Saddam alone. America and Britain have to be brought to face justice because they backed the Iraqi government in its war with Iran at the time when they sold chemical weapons,” he said.