World condemns lynching of Iraqi president

With demonstrations and other forms of protest throughout the Middle East and South Asia, many expressed their anger and dismay over the lynch justice Washington meted out to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Below are small excerpts from statements both condemning the kangaroo-court injustices and the brutal assassination, from varied sources.

India

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark: The great weight of international legal opinion has found the Iraqi Special Tribunal subject to political pressures, lacking independence and not impartial. “The trial” failed to provide due process of law and was unfair. ... Executions, if they occur in the midst of the present violence, are expected to cause a long term increase in the level of violence causing more U.S. and Iraqi casualties.

The BRussells Tribunal: The Iraqi Higher Criminal Court that passed a death sentence on President Saddam Hussein is grounded on illegality. Occupying powers under international law are expressly prohibited from changing the judicial structures of occupied states. Created by Paul Bremer, the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court was never anything but a U.S.-orchestrated puppet court.

Bangladesh

Malcolm Smart, director of the Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International: The independence and impartiality of the court was impugned. There was political interference. Three defense lawyers were murdered. Saddam himself had no access to legal advice for a year.

Human Rights Watch: The imposition of the death penalty—an inherently cruel and inhumane punishment—in the wake of an unfair trial is indefensible.

Jordan

International Association of Peoples Lawyers Board of Directors: Whereas, the trial was meant to mislead the world and smokescreen reality because the main forces that put Mr. Hussein on trial, which are the U.S. and other states, were themselves his erstwhile supporters, encouragers and financiers and as a previous ally of Mr. Hussein during the period of the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity of which he was judged, culpable high officials of the U.S. and other governments like the UK must be included in any trial about these serious charges.

Campaign for the End of the Occupation and for Sovereignty of Iraq (CEOSI—Spanish state): The execution will not hold back the resistance of the Iraqi people to the foreign occupation, or against the collaborationist forces and all those who are trying to bring about a sectarian division of the country.

Turkey

StopUSA (a Belgian anti-war movement): In November 1532, the Inca king Atahualpa stood trial before the Spanish conquistadores. He was sentenced to death and hanged in August 1533. Among the accusations against him: he would have been ‘cruel to his enemies,’ whatever that may have meant. In any case the execution of Atahualpa has gone down in history not so much because of the man’s supposed or real cruelty, but because of the grotesque nature of this parody of justice. It won’t be different with Saddam’s execution.”

The National Liberation Council of Bangladesh organized a protest meeting in the capital city Dhaka against the killing of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. At the meeting, Fiezul Hakim, secretary of the NLC, said, “By killing President Saddam Hussein, U.S. imperialism wanted to destroy Iraq. Now Saddam is the symbol of anti imperialism.” After the protest meeting a protest procession was held. Many other organizations held protest rallies.

The International Action Center (USA): This punishment has nothing to do with the alleged crimes of the Iraqi leader, nor is it part of an historical judgment of his role. It is the act of a conquering power against a nation that is occupied against the will not only of its 2003 legal government but also against the will of the vast majority of its people.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (ML) outright condemns the hanging of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein—who defiantly stood against U.S. imperialist design in the Middle East and jealously stood for independence and sovereignty of Iraq. Ignoring the world democratic opinion, Bush—the worst ever war criminal and number one international terrorist—has perpetrated this heinous crime the way this enemy of democracy did against Milosevic—the ex-president of Yugoslavia.

José Reinaldo Carvalho, secretary of International Relations of the Communist Party of Brazil: Saddam Hussein was executed as the result of an illegal sentence pronounced by an illegal court manipulated by the invading forces that have occupied Iraq since March of 2003. ... The conflicts already underway there [Middle East] will not have a proper ending, an ending consonant with the peoples’ yearning for peace, sovereignty and justice, as long as the interventionist and warmongering politics of U.S. imperialism holds sway in the region.

Bert De Belder, www.solidair.org (Belgium): Officially, the former Iraqi president was convicted for the execution in 1982 of 148 villagers in Dujail. In fact, Saddam was eliminated by the United States because he didn’t want to surrender his country’s oil and sovereignty. His execution is one more entry in a long list of U.S. war crimes.

Anti-Imperialist Camp: They turned Saddam into a martyr of the Iraqi liberation struggle. He will serve as an example for all anti-imperialist fighters for his tenacity and steadfastness.