Saddam: Kurdish witnesses Zionist agents
Ex-Iraqi leader lashes out at witnesses who tell of atrocities against them; ‘we will crush your heads,’ he threatens; adds: In any country in the world where there is rebellion, the authorities ask the army to defeat it
Saddam Hussein thundered out against “Agents of Iran and Zionism” and vowed Tuesday to “Crush your heads” after listening to Kurdish witnesses at his genocide trial tell of atrocities against them nearly two decades ago.
In a moment of defiance, one witness turned to the ex-president and declared: “Congratulations Saddam. You are in a cage.”
Saddam and the six other defendants sat silently in the courtroom as witnesses related the horrors of Operation Anfal, the 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq during which the prosecution claims about 180,000 Kurds lost their lives.
But when Saddam heard a lawyer describe Kurdish guerrillas, known as peshmergas, as freedom fighters, the ex-president bellowed: “You are agents of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads.”
Before the judge cut off his microphone, Saddam 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.”
He demanded that the word peshmerga, Kurdish for “Those who face death,” Be stricken from the trial record and complained that the five-judge panel had tolerated “Lots of violations” Of judicial proceedings during the Tuesday session.
'I heard the screaming of women, children'
“But if we were to get angry, it would be something else,” Saddam said, banging his fist against the podium. He also insisted that “Neutral” Experts who were not American examine the identities of the witnesses and the bodies of people allegedly found in mass graves. The prosecution demanded that Saddam’s statement about crushing the Kurdish rebellion be considered a confession. Chief judge Abdullah al-Amiri rejected the motion, but took note of it when the prosecution threatened to walk out. If convicted, Saddam and the other defendants could face death by hanging.
Saddam has maintained that the Anfal crackdown was directed against Kurdish guerrillas who were allied with Iran in the 1980-88 war and that loyal Iraqi Kurds were treated fairly during his rule.
That claim was disputed by four Kurdish witnesses, who told of ferocious attacks by Iraqi forces against their villages in the north as well as mass arrests and killings of civilians.
The most chilling account came from Ghafour Hassan Abdullah, who said Iraqi troops attacked his village near Sulaimaniyah with aircraft and artillery in February 1988. “At night, I heard the screaming of women and children,” said Ghafour Hassan Abdullah, who told the court that Iraqi troops attacked his village near Sulaimaniyah with aircraft and artillery in February 1988.
'We heard big bangs and later bad smells'
Abdullah said he fled to neighboring Iran, but that his mother and two sisters went missing. Years later, their ID cards were found in a mass grave near Hatra, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) from their home village, he said. Abdullah, 29, asked rhetorically why the Kurds, a non-Arab minority comprising 15 to 20 percent of Iraq’s population, had been so brutally suppressed under the ousted regime. “Why? Because we are Kurds,” He said. “Why did all disasters befall us? Because we are Kurds.”
Abdullah then turned to Saddam and said: “Congratulations, Saddam. You are in a cage.” He demanded compensation for the loss of his family. Another witness, farmer Mahmoud Hama Aziz, said he lost a brother in fighting with Iraqi forces in 1987, months before their village was razed.
“They (Iraqi forces) stole everything in the village, then burned it down,” He said in Kurdish, through an Arabic translator.
Aziz said he and two friends sought refuge in Iran, leaving behind a sister-in-law and her five children who later went missing. In 2004, he identified four of their bodies in a mass grave in northern Iraq. Omar Khudhir Mohammed Amin, 53, testified that he lost 19 members of his family - including his four brothers and sisters and their children - in the offensive. “The court in Sulaimaniyah asked for me. I went there and was shown their IDs. They showed me six IDs that belonged to my relatives. I told them I want to visit them, but court officials told me they are in a mass grave in Hatra,” He said.
Akram Ali Hussein Mahmoud, 41, said he lost 70 relatives in Operation Anfal, including a 5-year-old male relative who died of starvation. Residents of his village fled into the mountains when Iraqi troops launched a chemical attack. “We heard big bangs and later bad smells,” he said. “We ran to the mountains ... We saw a white layer cover the ground ... The trees turned gray and white, so we knew that a chemical material was used.”
Tuesday’s session is the fifth since Saddam’s trial on genocide charges against Kurds opened on Aug. 21. Saddam is awaiting a verdict on Oct. 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.
