September 19 2006

Insults to the Kurdish people and all Those Who Suffered Under Saddam the Dictator.

By Ardalan Hardi
Kurdishaspect.com

Last week’s comments by Judge Abdullah al-Amiri in court telling Saddam “You are not a dictator” is a disgrace to the position he was sworn to uphold. The prejudice statement alone should immediately disqualify him from his position.

Mr. Amiri, the dictionary says a judge is a person who makes decisions that determine or settle points at issue and is one capable of making rational, dispassionate, and wise decisions. You have shown that you lack all of these qualities. Without hesitation, you took it upon yourself and declared a tyrant Saddam is not a dictator. This is an insult to all those Kurdish and Shiite witnesses who have testified in your court about the torture they had to endure under the former dictator’s regime. Your assertion dishonours all those families’ that hopelessly wait for another mass grave to be discovered so they can bring closure to their missing love ones.
Mr. Amiri, Webster’s dictionary also defines dictator as one holding complete autocratic control or one ruling absolutely and often oppressively. Under Saddam, Iraq was ruled by force, brutality and oppression. For decades the Saddam Hussein's regime has killed, tortured, raped and terrorized the Iraqi people. Amnesty International reported “The people of Iraq suffered systematic and widespread abuses of their human rights for decades. Mass killings, “disappearances,” systematic use of torture, political imprisonment and forced removal from communities were used by Saddam Hussein’s government in an attempt to wipe out all opposition.”

Human Rights Watch comprehensive report “Genocide in Iraq - The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds,” originally published in July 1993, details the systematic and deliberate murder of at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 Kurds. The killings occurred between February and September 1988. “Genocide in Iraq” shows that the Kurdish victims were targeted on the basis of their ethnicity. According to Human Rights Watch, "senior Arab diplomats told the London-based Arabic daily newspaper al-Hayat in October [1991] that Iraqi leaders were privately acknowledging that 250,000 people were killed during the uprisings, with most of the casualties in the south."

It is obvious that you, Mr. Amiri, choose to be oblivious to the evidence and your surroundings. Your honor, if an oppressor like Saddam is not a dictator, who is?

The Iraqi people are in need of an independent and honorable judge. One that has high moral standards and that preserves the integrity of the judicial system – which you do not. Since you were a member of Saddam’s Ba’ath party and served as a prosecuting judge in a criminal court under the former dictator’s regime, I can see why you think the way you do.

You were one of them and you have proven that you still are. You bring disgrace to the black robe you wear, to your profession and to the judicial system you pledged to serve.

It is very apparent you are biased toward the tyrant Saddam and your recent statement most impertinently endorses your affinity to the former dictator and his thugs.

A statement from the Kurdish Halabja center in Sulaymania said “We demand the dismissal of the judge at the high tribunal and the nomination of another competent and neutral judge whose ideas are not polluted by the fascist Ba’ath.”

You, Mr. Amiri, are using the trial of Saddam as a podium to advocate your fascist Arab nationalistic propaganda and ignite the insurgency that continues to plague today’s Iraq. It is time for you to step aside and let justice prevail.

The prosecutors should boycott the trial until the demand for a new judge is met and perhaps they should investigate Mr. Amiri’s background to see if he too should be on trial for his crimes against humanity.