Saddam's genocide trial resumes

A Kurdish villager has testified that he fled from an attack by Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces 18 years ago, leaving behind his mother and two sisters.

Years later, their identity cards were discovered in a mass grave, he said.

“Congratulations! You are in a cage, Saddam,” witness Ghafour Hassan Abdullah said as he stared at the ousted president. Saddam later lashed out at “agents of Iran and Zionism” in the courtroom and vowed to “crush your heads”.

Abdullah, 33, gave the chilling account during the trial of Saddam and six others for their roles in Operation Anfal, the 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq during the final stages of the war with Iran.

Saddam has insisted that the crackdown was directed against Kurdish guerrillas who were allied with Iran in the 1980-88 war. If convicted, he and the other defendants could face death by hanging.

Abdullah told the court the attack was launched in February 1988 against his village near the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. Iraqi planes gave cover to advancing ground troops, who shelled Kurdish communities with artillery, he said.

“At night, I heard the screaming of women and children,” he said. He said he fled to neighbouring Iran, but that his mother and two sisters went missing. Years later, their ID cards were found in a mass grave near Hatra, he said.

Abdullah asked rhetorically why the Kurds, a non-Arab minority, was suppressed under the ousted regime.

“Why? Because we are Kurds. Why did all disasters befall on us? Because we are Kurds.”

He turned to Saddam and said: “Congratulations, Saddam. You are in a cage.” He demanded compensation for the loss of his family.

Saddam listened silently to the witness. But he lost his temper when one of the lawyers described Kurdish guerrillas, known as peshmargas, as freedom fighters.

“You are agents of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads,” Saddam shouted.

Before the judge cut off his microphone, Saddam demanded that the word peshmarga, Kurdish for sacrifice, be stricken from the trial record. He said the Kurdish guerrillas were rebels and “in any country in the world where there is rebellion, the authorities ask the army to defeat it”.

The prosecution demanded that Saddam’s statement be considered a confession. The presiding judge initially rejected, but took note of the request when the prosecution threatened to walk out.

Today’s session is the fifth since Saddam’s trial on genocide charges against Kurds opened on August 21.

Yesterday, Saddam accused Kurdish witnesses of trying to create ethnic divisions by alleging chemical attacks and mass arrests in their villages during the Anfal crackdown that the prosecution says claimed up to 180,000 lives.

Saddam is awaiting a verdict on October 16 in the first case against him – the nine-month-long trial over the killings of 148 Shiites in Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt against him there.

In that case as well, he and seven other co-defendants could face the death penalty.