COMMENTARY

Saddam’s Execution: War on Justice

- Srilata Swaminathan

Saddam’s trial was a mockery of justice from first to last – whether it was the kangaroo court set up by them under the euphemism of Iraq Special Tribunal, with three judges all vociferous anti-Saddamists, the way three defence lawyers and many witnesses were murdered, the hurry to get him sentenced with no proper time given for his defence; the political mileage they tried to reap out of the dates of his sentencing and his execution; the points he was tried and found guilty about or the manner in which he was finally hanged. The whole thing was stage-managed by US imperialism. All this shows not only their arrogance but the total contempt with which they hold the rest of the world’s opinion for what they were doing and how they were doing it. Just substitute the black hoods worn by Saddam’s executioners for white ones and we could have been witnessing that other US institution of white supremacy, the Ku Klux Klan!

CPI(ML) Protests Saddam’s Execution

The Party organised protests all over the country on December 30. At New Delhi protestors marched from Jantar Mantar to the American Centre and ‘hanged’ the effigy of US President George Bush before burning it. Similar protests were held in all the state capitals and important centres where party activists denounced US-led imperialism and demanded that the UPA Government issue a strong condemnation of this incident, shun the policy of surrender before the US and demand immediate withdrawal of US-led occupation forces from Iraq.
CPI(ML) activists burnt the effigy of George Bush in front of the UP Vidhan Sabha. Leaders of AIPWA, Tehriq-e-Niswan, Bazm-e-Khawateen, and AICCTU were also present in the protest. Protests were also held at other district headquarters including Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Moradabad, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Chandauli, Gazipur, Ballia, Unnao, Gonda, Pilibhit, Faizabad, and Ambedkarnagar.
A protest demonstration was held in Chennai and at Virudhachalam activists burnt a Bush effigy, defying police attempts to thwart them. Nearly 20 protesters were later arrested and a case was framed against them. Protests were also held in other parts of Tamil Nadu. In Tirunelveli and Krishnagiri demonstrations were held on December 31, while in Erode and Karur Bush effigies were burnt on January 1. Protests were held at Sengunram, Tambaram, Kumbakinam, Pudukottai, Devakottai, Nellai, Madurai and Salem.
RYA held a demonstration at Vidyanagar (AP), while agrarian workers led by CPI(ML) took out a march and burnt the effigy of Bush in Kakinada and protests were also held at Visampeta, Yellashwaram and many other places in AP. A joint protest rally was held in Hyderabad by nine left parties, including CPI(ML). Protests were also organised in HP Halli and Gangavati in Karnataka.
Nearly a hundred people led by CPI(ML) gathered at Abarpura in Gwalior, on the day of the execution of Saddam Hussein and burnt the effigy of Bush. Protests were also held at Uttarakhand and Rajasthan. A protest demonstration was held at Jaipur which was participated mainly by unorganised sector workers, while in Jhunjhunu hundreds of people marched to the collectorate and burnt an effigy of Bush.
At Punjab, hundreds of people marched in Bhikhi town, and burnt the Bush effigy. A protest meeting and burning of effigy was organised in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) on December 30 by CPI(ML) and Inquilabi Muslim Forum.
People held protest marches, demonstrations, and burnt Bush in effigy in almost all districts of Bihar. A protest march was held in Patna. Other towns also witnessed militant protests. At some places activists came out on the streets spontaneously on hearing the news of Saddam’s hanging and the protests began immediately since morning.

Cities in Jharkhand also witnessed militant protests on this day. Various programmes were organised in all the corners of the states including Ranchi, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Palamu, and Deoghar.

Ramsey Clarke the ex-Attorney General of the US was so appalled at the blatant illegalities and injustice that he became part of Saddam’s defence team. In the many articles, letters and statements he made he gives ample evidence of how the US government broke its own laws, disregarded its own justice systems and legal traditions including the Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. US media propaganda was so extreme and so rabidly anti- Saddam that it tried to belittle him and make a mockery of him, degrading and humiliating him in every way possible so that by the time he was hanged most of the democratic world was actually sorry for him. Ramsey Clarke had earlier written “This successful demonisation made the U.S. unilateral war of aggression against Iraq politically possible. It now makes a fair trial for Saddam Hussein impossible.”
Take the crime he was hanged for – the execution of 148 Iraqis from the town of Dujail in 1985. In 1982 while Iraq was fighting Iran an attempt to assassinate President Saddam Hussain and other leaders was made in Dujail. This is a Shia town near the border of Iran, and the assassination attempt was made by supporters of the underground Dawa Party which was formed in Iran to actively overthrow Saddam and his government, was being funded by Iran and was banned in Iraq. For a person of Saddam’s despotic nature it was amazing that at a time of war he gave them a fair trial, arrested only a few hundred of the town (less than 2%) and released many who were found innocent and the rest were sentenced for treason by the courts. Some property was confiscated or destroyed but all were paid compensation. Compare that with how the US arrested 110,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII, confiscated all their property and held them in desert detention camps from 1942 to 1945! In much the same way, compared to the US’ trial of Saddam the Dujail treason case under Saddam’s regime was a model of fair-play and justice!
Take the Iraq Special Tribunal (IST) which was set up to condemn Saddam. The IST was designed and controlled by the US in 2003 during its illegal conquest and occupation of Iraq, the statutes of the IST was written up by US lawyers, financed by the US and its personnel are selected, trained and protected by the US military. It has no legal standing apart from the US power behind it! Its judges have all been sworn enemies of Saddam and his regime. The defence were given no opportunity to investigate, procure documents or witnesses, given no transcripts or translations of testimonies and trial proceedings and no time to present their defence. Ramsey Clark sums it up as a trial that “has been a corruption of Justice, notoriously unfair and internationally recognized as failing to meet every standard of fairness and due process”.
Clark also points out that as Governor of Texas, George W. Bush signed death warrants for 152 persons, including women, retarded persons, aliens in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and persons under the age of 18 at the time of the offence. He never granted a pardon, or commutation.
Saddam ruled Iraq from 1979 and had the full blessings of the US especially because he was ready and able to fight two of the US’s sworn enemies – Iran and the communists. In fact, he ruthlessly overthrew a left government in order for his Baath Party to come to power. Later, he fell out with his US mentors and was, as a result, demonised and hanged by them. He lost favour with the US when he refused to act as their puppet. He was set-up by them in his invasion of Kuwait, which they pretended to encourage, only to pull him down.
Unfortunately for the US, Saddam hasn’t given the Republicans the political mileage they were hoping for. His sentencing two days before their mid-term poll could not stop the drubbing they got from the Democrats whereas the manner and timing of his hanging has incensed not just the Muslim world but all democratic people. The TV clips which showed his calm, uncovered head and equanimity before the jeers and taunts of his hooded executioners has if anything, showed up the US for the bullies they are. His death is certainly not going to end the debacle that the US faces in Iraq.

The latest escalation of war in Iraq, the decision to move more troops there is a clear admission that the US is losing ground to the Resistance and losing their control over the oil wealth as every day more and more oil pipe lines are sabotaged. The people of the world watch with horror the further onslaught on the people of Iraq and West Asia. The Democrats in the US legislature have shown their complicity, telling the US and the whole world that, when the chips are down, they are no different from the Republicans.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the Emirates have all kowtowed and signed up to endorse the Bush administration’s escalation of its aggression against Iraq and its plans for a military attack on Iran. Condoleeza Rice’s recent tour of the Middle East culminated with a joint statement by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation along with Egypt and Jordan endorsing on January 16 the Bush Govt’s decision to dispatch 21,000 troops. Couple this with the alarming threats to Iran, and our own government’s pusillanimity, and its weak-kneed statement tamely terming Saddam’s hanging as “unfortunate” is a reflection of our total subservience to US imperialist policies.
The US already has nearly 40,000 troops in Gulf countries other than Iraq, including about 25,000 in Kuwait, 6,500 in Qatar, 3,000 in Bahrain, 1,300 in the United Arab Emirates and a few hundred in Oman and Saudi Arabia, according to figures from the Dubai-based Gulf Research Centre.
As we write the war on Iraq is increasing, more and more are dying every day, the Pentagon hawks are now discussing incorporating nuclear weapons in their desperation to control the situation in Iraq!
If Saddam has been hanged for killing 148 people then what do we do to Bush and Blair who have killed over 2 million in Iraq since 1991 through war and sanctions? The biggest threat to west Asia and the world today is the US. In fact, what is badly needed is the restoration of democracy, a regime change and the cleaning up of all the weapons-of mass-destruction in the US.