Saddam to face second trial

Saddam Hussein

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein and his former top army commanders will go on trial on August 21 on charges of killing tens of thousands of Iraq's Kurds in 1988 in a military operation to force them from their villages.

Kurds, whose northern region is still haunted by the seven-month "Anfal" campaign, have long sought justice and want the former president to face the death penalty, as he does in a current trial over killings of Shi'ites.

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told Reuters seven defendants including Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid or "Chemical Ali," would stand trial in the new case.

All seven face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Saddam and Majid face the additional graver charge of genocide, which also carries the death penalty. Saddam is currently being tried only for crimes against humanity.

"Anfal," meaning "spoils of war," is a term taken from a verse in the Koran that calls for terror to be struck into the hearts of unbelievers. Mustard gas and nerve agents were used to drive villagers from their homes.

The campaign devastated Kurdistan, a mountainous region bordering Turkey. By some estimates 4,500 villages were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people killed, tortured or displaced.

Many were shot and their bodies dumped in mass graves. US military investigators said this week that in two of the graves they excavated they found 123 bodies, including 88 children and infants. All had been shot in the back of the head.

"When Saddam and those accused with him are executed we will feel great relief," said Ibrahim Wadi, 31, who was detained along with his family during the campaign.

A US lawyer on Saddam's defence team, which has bitterly criticised the current trial as unfair, said the Anfal trial would present even greater challenges due to its complexity and importance to Kurds.

"The Anfal case is a huge case," former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a veteran defender of unpopular high-profile cases, told a news conference in Washington.

To avoid "a mere show trial," he said, the defence team must receive enough money, time and security to visit the region and prepare.

Shi'ites and Kurds, who suffered most under Saddam's Sunni Arab-led administration, have dominated politics since the 2003 US invasion and lead the new government of national unity.

Court officials say they are preparing about a dozen cases against Saddam that could take years. No executions are likely until appeals have been heard.

Saddam already faces the death penalty over the killings of 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail in the 1980s.

His lawyers are due to sum up in that case on July 10 but have threatened a boycott after gunmen killed a member of their team last week. A verdict may come in September.

Saddam's cousin Majid, accused of a lead role in the Anfal campaign, is best known for accusations he directed a gas attack against the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988 that killed 5,000 people.

Although the Halabja gas attack took place in the same period as Anfal, it will be the subject of a separate trial.

The other defendants include former Defence Minister Sultan Hashim, head of Saddam's military intelligence, a former provincial governor and other top military officials.

The defence, which calls the court a US political tool, is likely to highlight how Kurdish guerrillas attacked Iraqi forces during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war.

Clark also said defence lawyers would examine extensive US intelligence on the Anfal campaign.

- REUTERS