Saddam is hanged
Al Jazeera, 30 December
Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president, has been hanged, Iraqi officials have said.
The execution took place shortly before 6am (03:00 GMT) on Saturday at an Iraqi miltary facility in northern Baghdad.
Iraqi television later showed footage of Saddam being placed in a noose by hangmen, cutting away just before his execution.
The 69-year-old appeared calm, chatting to his hangmen as they wrapped his neck in black cloth and steered him towards the gallows.
Iraqi television later showed footage of his body.
Saddam was convicted last month of the killings of 148 Shias after a failed assassination attempt in 1982.
Iraqi television later showed footage of his body.
Saddam was convicted last month of the killings of 148 Shias after a failed assassination attempt in 1982.
The Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, later urged Saddam's fellow Baathists to reconsider their tactics and join the political process.
"I urged followers of the ousted regime to reconsider their stance as the door is still open to anyone who has no innocent blood on his hands, to help in rebuilding an Iraq for all Iraqis," he said.
In Sadr City, a Shia area of Baghdad, people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate the former leader's death.
Kurds also welcomed the hanging and the office of the Kurdish regional president, Massud Barzani, issued a statement saying: "We hope that Saddam Hussein's execution will open a new chapter among Iraqis and the end of using violence against civilians."
Violence in Iraq continued on Saturday after Saddam's death and at least 30 people were killed when a bomb exploded in a fish market south of Baghdad in the first.
"I urged followers of the ousted regime to reconsider their stance as the door is still open to anyone who has no innocent blood on his hands, to help in rebuilding an Iraq for all Iraqis," he said.
In Sadr City, a Shia area of Baghdad, people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate the former leader's death.
Kurds also welcomed the hanging and the office of the Kurdish regional president, Massud Barzani, issued a statement saying: "We hope that Saddam Hussein's execution will open a new chapter among Iraqis and the end of using violence against civilians."
Violence in Iraq continued on Saturday after Saddam's death and at least 30 people were killed when a bomb exploded in a fish market south of Baghdad in the first.
George Bush said that the execution was an important milestone on the country's path to democracy.
Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself," the US president said in a statement.
An appeals court had upheld the death penalty on Tuesday and the Iraqi government rushed through the procedures to hang Saddam by the end of the year and before the Eid al-Adha holiday that starts on Saturday.
Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and a former judge, Awad al-Bander, also sentenced to death for their roles in the killings of the villagers in Dujail, will be hanged after Eid, officials said on Saturday.
The execution took place at an Iraqi army base in Kadhimiya.
The base was the former headquarters for Saddam's military intelligence where many of his victims were tortured and executed in the same gallows.
The northern Baghdad district is also home to one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines.
An appeals court had upheld the death penalty on Tuesday and the Iraqi government rushed through the procedures to hang Saddam by the end of the year and before the Eid al-Adha holiday that starts on Saturday.
Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and a former judge, Awad al-Bander, also sentenced to death for their roles in the killings of the villagers in Dujail, will be hanged after Eid, officials said on Saturday.
The execution took place at an Iraqi army base in Kadhimiya.
The base was the former headquarters for Saddam's military intelligence where many of his victims were tortured and executed in the same gallows.
The northern Baghdad district is also home to one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines.
The government had kept details of the execution plan secret amid concerns that it may provoke a violent backlash from Saddam's supporters with Iraq on the brink of civil war.
"It was very quick. He died right away," an official Iraqi witnesses told the Reuters news agency.
"We heard his neck snap," said Sami al-Askari, a political ally of al-Maliki.
Another witness said: "He seemed very calm. He did not tremble."
As guards took him to the scaffold, according to witnesses, Saddam said: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet."
Criticism
During his three decades in power, Saddam was accused of widespread oppression of political opponents and genocide against Kurds in northern Iraq. His execution means that he will never face justice on those charges.
Others have questioned the timing of the killing, coming at the beginning of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Saddam insisted during his trial that he was still the president of Iraq. He said in a letter written after his conviction that he offered himself as a
"It was very quick. He died right away," an official Iraqi witnesses told the Reuters news agency.
"We heard his neck snap," said Sami al-Askari, a political ally of al-Maliki.
Another witness said: "He seemed very calm. He did not tremble."
As guards took him to the scaffold, according to witnesses, Saddam said: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet."
Criticism
During his three decades in power, Saddam was accused of widespread oppression of political opponents and genocide against Kurds in northern Iraq. His execution means that he will never face justice on those charges.
Others have questioned the timing of the killing, coming at the beginning of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Saddam insisted during his trial that he was still the president of Iraq. He said in a letter written after his conviction that he offered himself as a
"sacrifice".
"If my soul goes down this path [of martyrdom] it will face God in serenity," he wrote in the letter.
'Biased' trial
Saddam's defence team and human rights groups complained that the former Iraqi leader had not recieved a fair trial.
Najeeb Al-Nuaimi, one of the defence lawyers, told Al Jazeera: "There was bias, the prosecution sided with their politicians, it was an ethnically established court with three Shia and one Sunni."
The US-based rights group Human Rights Watch condemned the hanging, saying history would judge his trial and execution harshly.
Richard Dicker, a Human Rights Watch director, said: "Saddam Hussein was responsible for horrific, widespread human rights violations, but those acts, however brutal, cannot justify his execution, a cruel and inhuman punishment."
"If my soul goes down this path [of martyrdom] it will face God in serenity," he wrote in the letter.
'Biased' trial
Saddam's defence team and human rights groups complained that the former Iraqi leader had not recieved a fair trial.
Najeeb Al-Nuaimi, one of the defence lawyers, told Al Jazeera: "There was bias, the prosecution sided with their politicians, it was an ethnically established court with three Shia and one Sunni."
The US-based rights group Human Rights Watch condemned the hanging, saying history would judge his trial and execution harshly.
Richard Dicker, a Human Rights Watch director, said: "Saddam Hussein was responsible for horrific, widespread human rights violations, but those acts, however brutal, cannot justify his execution, a cruel and inhuman punishment."
The Economist, 30 December
AT DAWN on Saturday December 30th Saddam Hussein was hanged. The same day, footage of him being taken to the gallows was broadcast on Iraq's state television, to convince any doubters that he had truly been killed. The immediate reactions were predictable enough. In Shia-dominated parts of the capital there were celebrations. Sunnis and former supporters of Mr Hussein had complained about his treatment. Possibly unrelated, a bomb exploded in a Shia city in southern Iraq. George Bush called the execution “an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror.”
The former dictator was convicted by the Iraqi Special Tribunal in Baghdad and handed a death sentence, in November, over the killing of 148 people in the town of Dujail, in 1982. Although a second trial is ongoing, it was widely assumed that Iraq’s new government—and its American ally—wanted to see Mr Hussein executed sooner rather than later.
There are reasons why the hanging might perhaps be welcomed. Justice demanded that he should be held to account for the many murders, the torture, the displacement and other crimes he committed while in power. If ever the death penalty were deserved, it would be for precisely such a dictator. Although the trial had serious defects, it was not entirely for show. He received the sort of hearing in court, the opportunity to speak out in his defence, that none of his victims enjoyed. And some may now hope there is a practical benefit. With the former leader dead, rather than languishing in prison, his supporters have lost any hope that they, through violence, could somehow bring him back to power.
Yet executing him has been a mistake. Not only is capital punishment wrong in itself, however wicked the guilty party, it is most unlikely to help bind Iraq’s wounds. His trial was flawed enough to provoke condemnation from Western human rights groups, among others, and to seed suspicion in some parts that the former tyrant’s execution has been less a matter of justice and more a case of revenge. Showing greater respect for human life than he ever did would have represented a rare moral victory for Iraq's rulers. Keeping Mr Hussein alive would have allowed other trials detailing far greater evils than Dujail to be completed—such as the one, already begun, in which he stands accused of instigating the so-called Anfal campaign against Iraq's Kurds, in which more than 100,000 people may have been killed and millions uprooted.
The decision whether to go ahead, however, was one for Iraqis to make. He himself said he would be “sacrifice” and a “true martyr” for Iraq. But the ongoing misery of daily killings is driven by many more forces than fighters loyal to their former leader—the bitter rivalry between and among Shia and Sunni groups, the influence of al-Qaeda, the activities of organised criminals and other factors matter rather more. Most Shias and many Kurds do not care a jot about the technical defects of the trial. As for the Sunnis who were loyal to the previous regime, it is the legitimacy of the present government, not the probity of the court, that is fundamentally in question. Mr Hussein's death will not, of course, make him a martyr. However, nor will it do anything to encourage the reconciliation or compromise that Iraq needs.
AT DAWN on Saturday December 30th Saddam Hussein was hanged. The same day, footage of him being taken to the gallows was broadcast on Iraq's state television, to convince any doubters that he had truly been killed. The immediate reactions were predictable enough. In Shia-dominated parts of the capital there were celebrations. Sunnis and former supporters of Mr Hussein had complained about his treatment. Possibly unrelated, a bomb exploded in a Shia city in southern Iraq. George Bush called the execution “an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror.”
The former dictator was convicted by the Iraqi Special Tribunal in Baghdad and handed a death sentence, in November, over the killing of 148 people in the town of Dujail, in 1982. Although a second trial is ongoing, it was widely assumed that Iraq’s new government—and its American ally—wanted to see Mr Hussein executed sooner rather than later.
There are reasons why the hanging might perhaps be welcomed. Justice demanded that he should be held to account for the many murders, the torture, the displacement and other crimes he committed while in power. If ever the death penalty were deserved, it would be for precisely such a dictator. Although the trial had serious defects, it was not entirely for show. He received the sort of hearing in court, the opportunity to speak out in his defence, that none of his victims enjoyed. And some may now hope there is a practical benefit. With the former leader dead, rather than languishing in prison, his supporters have lost any hope that they, through violence, could somehow bring him back to power.
Yet executing him has been a mistake. Not only is capital punishment wrong in itself, however wicked the guilty party, it is most unlikely to help bind Iraq’s wounds. His trial was flawed enough to provoke condemnation from Western human rights groups, among others, and to seed suspicion in some parts that the former tyrant’s execution has been less a matter of justice and more a case of revenge. Showing greater respect for human life than he ever did would have represented a rare moral victory for Iraq's rulers. Keeping Mr Hussein alive would have allowed other trials detailing far greater evils than Dujail to be completed—such as the one, already begun, in which he stands accused of instigating the so-called Anfal campaign against Iraq's Kurds, in which more than 100,000 people may have been killed and millions uprooted.
The decision whether to go ahead, however, was one for Iraqis to make. He himself said he would be “sacrifice” and a “true martyr” for Iraq. But the ongoing misery of daily killings is driven by many more forces than fighters loyal to their former leader—the bitter rivalry between and among Shia and Sunni groups, the influence of al-Qaeda, the activities of organised criminals and other factors matter rather more. Most Shias and many Kurds do not care a jot about the technical defects of the trial. As for the Sunnis who were loyal to the previous regime, it is the legitimacy of the present government, not the probity of the court, that is fundamentally in question. Mr Hussein's death will not, of course, make him a martyr. However, nor will it do anything to encourage the reconciliation or compromise that Iraq needs.
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