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Bush. 'A milestone'
Photo: AP
Photo: Reuters
Saddam. 'A measure of justice'
Photo: Reuters

Bush hails Saddam verdict

US president says Sunday former Iraqi president's conviction is a signature achievement for Iraq's fledgling democracy, calls verdict 'a milestone in Iraqi people's efforts to replace rule of tyrant with rule of law'

US President George W. Bush said Sunday that Saddam Hussein's conviction was a signature achievement for Iraq's fledgling democracy.

 

Bush called the verdict "a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law."

 

Saddam was convicted Sunday and sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a Shiite town.

 

"It's a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government," the president said at the airport before flying to Nebraska and Kansas on a campaign swing for Republican candidates two days before congressional elections.

 

"The man who once struck fear in the hearts of Iraqis had to listen to free Iraqis recount the acts of torture and murder that he ordered against their families and against them," Bush said in brief remarks.

 

Saddam and seven co-defendants were tried for revenge killings in the city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam.

 

"Today, the victims of this regime have received a measure of the justice which many thought would never come," Bush said.

 

The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel.

 

"He will continue to receive the right to due process and legal rights that he denied to the Iraqi people," Bush said.

 

Earlier Sunday, White House aides said Bush was confident the Iraqi government and US-led forces were prepared to deal with a spike in violence following the verdict.

 

Bush recognizes that extremists and other Saddam loyalists might react violently, but the president believes Iraqi leaders and American and Iraqi security forces can keep contain any outbreaks, presidential counselor Dan Bartlett said.

 

Verdict timed to coincide with elections?

Presidential press secretary Tony Snow said the verdict was evidence Iraq is making progress in creating an independent judiciary. He also said it was "absolutely crazy" to think that the verdict was timed to coincide with the elections.

 

"I think American voters ought to be heartened by it," Snow told the AP. "This is getting the Iraqis to stand up on their own. You can't have civil society without rule of law."

 

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the conviction was a "hopeful reminder to all Iraqis that the rule of law can triumph over the rule of fear and that the peaceful pursuit of justice is preferable to the pursuit of vengeance."

 

"The United States government and the American people applaud those brave Iraqis, whether they be judges, prosecutors, or defense attorneys, who continue to work every day in the name of justice, democracy, and the rule of law for Iraq," Rice said in a statement.

 

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said the verdict brought long deserved justice for Iraqis. But he said Iraq has descended into a civil war and that Iraqis "have traded a dictator for chaos" Since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

 

Neither option is acceptable, he said, when US troops who are caught in the middle.

 

Reid urged Bush - "on this day of justice" for Iraqis - to explain to Americans how he intends to change course so US troops will have a strategy to complete the mission.

 

Snow countered Reid's remark with Bush's campaign mantra: "You've got Democrats out saying it's a failed policy, but they don't have a policy," Snow said.

 

The top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee said the verdict was just. But Rep. Tom Lantos said in a statement that it must not distract Americans from the more pressing issue: "The need for a change in the direction of our country's policy toward Iraq, both the conduct of the war effort and our pathetic, corruption-stained attempt at reconstruction."

 

Snow denied the US had any role in the timing of the verdict, days before an election widely viewed as a referendum on Bush's Iraq policy. Democrats are poised for large gains, hoping to take control of the House or Senate, or both, in Tuesday's balloting.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.05.06, 22:32
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