Human Rights Watch :: Hanging After Flawed Trial Undermines Rule of Law

[jefferson_dem]

Iraq: Saddam Hussein Put to Death
Hanging After Flawed Trial Undermines Rule of Law

(New York, December 30, 2006) – The execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein following a deeply flawed trial for crimes against humanity marks a significant step away from respect for human rights and the rule of law in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch has for more than 15 years documented the human rights crimes committed by Hussein’s former government, and has campaigned to bring the perpetrators to justice. These crimes include the killing of more than 100,000 Iraqi Kurds in Northern Iraq as part of the 1998 Anfal campaign.

“Saddam Hussein was responsible for massive human rights violations, but that can’t justify giving him the death penalty, which is a cruel and inhuman punishment,” said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program.

The Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced Saddam Hussein and two others to death in November for the killing of 148 men and boys from the town of Dujail in 1982. The tribunal’s statute prohibits, contrary to international law, the possibility of commuting a death sentence. It also requires that the execution take place within 30 days of the final appeal.

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“The test of a government’s commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders,” said Dicker. “History will judge these actions harshly.”

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http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/12/30/iraq14950.htm

[54anickel]

1. What rule of law? That's soooo pre-911....So pre-Bushco.

:sarcasm:

[IndianaGreen]

2. Experts on Iraq react to the execution of Saddam Hussein

To these experts' opinions I will add the macabre spectacle of the Saddam death watch that the cable news networks indulged in tonight.

'It will be taken as an American decision'

Experts on Iraq react to the execution of Saddam Hussein

Saturday December 30, 2006
The Guardian

Rosemary Hollis, director of research at Chatham House, London

It's tawdry. It's not going to achieve anything because of the way the trial was conducted and the way the occupation was conducted. Life in Iraq has become so precarious that many people are saying it was safer under Saddam Hussein - it makes the whole thing look like a poke in the eye as opposed to closure or some kind of contribution to the future of Iraq. The purpose should have been to see justice done in a transparent manner ... the trial was gruesome, occasionally farcical, and failed to fulfill its promise of giving satisfaction.

Mishkat al-Moumin, former environment minister in transitional Iraqi government, now at the Middle East Institute in Washington

Ordinary people who were abused by him will be relieved. His opponents will be relieved when he is finally gone. He abused people severely and his abuses were on a nationwide scale. He killed so many people. At the political level, those who support him might try to take revenge but on the people's side they will feel they have seen justice done.

Kamil Mahdi, Iraqi expatriate, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter university

Quite honestly, I don't think much of it any more, given what's happening in Iraq. It will be taken as an American decision. The worst thing is that it's an issue which, in an ideal situation, should have unified Iraq but the Americans have succeeded in dividing the Iraqis.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1980271,00.html

[ckramer]

4. 'It will be taken as an American decision' - only Freepers wouldn't see it that way

Bush had invaded Saddam's country and killed him.

That's how history would tell.

[0007]

5. This is a first class exhibition of how an American Kangaroo Court

101 run by American crime cabal works.

No doubt in my mind the cover up is in place and the sheeple will eat it up and love every second of it.

As Keith Olbermann will say, "Good Night and Good Luck".

[IndianaGreen]

7. A fair trial would have had American officials as Saddam's co-defendants

Saddam knew the details of Donald Rumsfeld visit to Baghdad. We know that the US provided Iraq with WMD technology to be used against Iran, what we don't know is the names of all the American officials and corporations that provided the technology to Saddam.

[Desertrose]

8. I totally agree IG...it had to be quick enough

to stop any further digging and/or name mentioning. After all, who set Saddam up all those years ago?

Kangaroo court indeed....and this will make the Iraqis really love us, right?

I've got such a bad bad feeling from this......

[Vidar]

9. Precisely corredt.

[Thickasabrick]

3. I don't think I have ever been so ashamed to be an american. The

US orchestrated the entire gruesome production and all I keep feeling is total shame that my country has come to this.

[earlybelle]

6. The US has thumbed its nose at the rule of law since Bush took office so nothing new here.

[Vidar]

10. Only too true.