Will Saddam Hussein’s execution help Iraq?
Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq, was executed on Dec. 30, 2006, for crimes against humanity. The international community showed mixed reactions over the execution of the former Iraqi dictator, who ruled the country for 24 years.Hussein was hanged before down for his role in the 1982 massacre of Dujail, where 148 Iraqis were killed in retaliation for what he had called a failed assassination attempt.
▶ From the top, Saddam Hussein in 1991 after the US had pushed back his invasion of Kuwait;
In Hussein’s account, his convoy was attacked while passing the village about 60 kilometers north of Baghdad, Iraq’s capital city. Conflicts between Sunni and Shi’i Muslims are common in the Islamic world, and Hussein, a Sunni Muslim, regarded the attack as an assassination attempt by the Shi’a. Civilians were killed brutally, and the trial of Hussein failed to reveal whether the victims had themselves undergone trials before being executed.
The incident had been regarded as the symbol of his dictatorship and record of severe human rights infringements. The United States, which once attempted to justify its war against Iraq by insisting that the dictator has a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, has used this incident as a reason to remove Hussein.
On Nov. 5, the former Iraqi leader was convicted by an Iraqi court for the massacre and sentenced to death. His half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq’s former chief judge, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, were also sentenced to die.
The appeals court of Iraq upheld Hussein’s sentence on Dec. 26, and the execution took place only four days later, ending his three years of captivity by U.S. forces. There was no U.S. involvement in the execution, the U.S. and Iraqi governments said.
Born in 1937 in Tikrit, Hussein, whose formal name is Saddam Hussein al-Majeed al-Tikriti, seized power in 1968 through a coup with his pan-Arab Baath party. He became the president of Iraq in July 1979. Throughout his rule, the tyrant committed cruel crimes against humanity and initiated two armed conflicts with Arab neighbors.
In March 1988, 5,000 Kurds in Iraq were killed by poisonous gas, and the incident was one of many suspected mass killings committed by his regime.
In September 1980, he attacked Iran over a territorial dispute in an attempt to win regional supremacy, and the war continued for eight years until a peace treaty was signed.
Hussein then ordered his forces into Kuwait in August 1990, hoping that he could grab some of the richest oil reserves in the world. Hussein’s soldiers, however, had to retreat when U.S. and multinational forces intervened in January of the following year.
In March 2003, the Bush administration in the United States launched a war against Iraq, claiming Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Baghdad fell after only 20 days of fighting. In December 2003, he was captured near his hometown of Tikrit.
After Hussein’s execution, the international community had a divided reaction. The United States and most of the Western world, as well as Iran and Israel, welcomed the removal of the notorious dictator, but some Arabs were angered. Europe showed a mixed reaction, both condemning Hussein’s crimes and the use of capital punishment.
U.S. President George W. Bush said Hussein received a fair trial, adding “Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone in Iraq’s course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself.”
Hours after the execution, the foreign secretary of the British government, Margaret Beckett, released a statement, denouncing the use of capital punishment.
“The British government does not support the use of the death penalty, in Iraq or anywhere else,” she said, but added that “I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appaling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people. He has now been held to account.”
The Australian and Polish governments, which have dispatched troops to Iraq, said they respect the Iraqi government’s decision to execute the former dictator.
Israel hailed the execution. Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said in a public rradio address that Hussein was “a man who caused a great deal of harm to his people and who was a major threat to Israel,” adding he “brought about his own demise.”
▶ Iraqis in Baghdad celebrate Hussein’s execution. [AP]
Iran, which suffered eight years of war after Iraq attempted to invade it, also hailed Hussein’s death. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi called Hussein’s execution a victory for all Iraqi people.
Arab nations, however, were enraged. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, condemned the execution, saying that it was a “political assassination.” Hamas officially leads the Palestinian government since it took office in March following an election victory.
Libya also criticized the execution, saying that it was conducted with ”religiously inappropriate timing.” The nation announced three days of official mourning for the former Iraqi president.
The European Union and the Vatican both condemned the use of the death penalty.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it wished that the Iraqi government and its people will achieve stability and undertake a successful economic reconstruction. South Korea has dispatched peacekeeping troops to Irbil, in Iraq’s Kurdish region.
by Kim Jun-hyun,Wohn Dong-hee
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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