APRIL 2006

IRAQ today
PHOTO BY KHALID MOHAMMED/AP
Saddam calls on Iraqis
to fight Americans
BY BASSEM MROUE
BAGHDAD, Iraq/AP
The judge shouted that he was no longer Iraq’ s
president, but Saddam Hussein wasn’ t listening.
He kept addressing the Iraqi people as if he
were still their leader, calling on them in a rambling
speech to fight the Americans.
Finally, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman in frustration
ordered journalists out of the courtroom in March
15’ s stormy session of Saddam’ s trial and turned off
the cameras for 90 minutes.
Saddam was called into court to testify for the first
time and undergo questioning on charges he ordered
the killing of 148 Shiites and the imprisonment and
torture of others during a crackdown in the 1980s.
Instead, Saddam, dressed in a black suit and
wearing large reading glasses, read from a prepared
text, addressing the “ great Iraqi people’ ’ — a phrase
he often used in his presidential speeches — and said
he was “ pained’ ’ by the wave of Sunni-Shiite violence
tearing Iraq apart in recent weeks.
“ Let the people unite and resist the invaders and
their backers. Don’ t fight among yourselves,’ ’ he said,
praising the insurgency.
“ In your resistance to the invasion by the
Americans and Zionists and their allies, you were
great. You were great in my eyes and you remain so.
... It’ s only a matter of time until the sun rises and
you’ ll be victorious,’ ’ he said.
When Abdel-Rahman told him to discuss his role
in the crackdown in the Shiite town of Dujail “ as head
of state at the time,’ ’ Saddam retorted, “ I am the head
of state.’ ’
“ You used to be a head of state. You are a defendant
now,’ ’ Abdel-Rahman barked.
Saddam Hussein
argues with the chief
judge while testifying
during his trial in
Baghdad on March 15.
The stormy exchanges were a stark contrast to the
past few sessions, when each of Saddam’ s seven codefendants
took the stand, one by one, and were
questioned by the judge and prosecutor about the
Dujail crackdown, launched after a 1982 assassination
attempt on Saddam.
Even Saddam’ s half brother, former intelligence
chief Barzan Ibrahim — who has frequently caused an
uproar in the court in the past — submitted to more
than three hours of questioning earlier that day. He
denied any role in the crackdown, and as prosecutors
presented a series of intelligence memos on the
arrests allegedly with his signatures, he insisted each
was a forgery.
Prosecutors will have another chance to try to
question Saddam on the charges when the trial next
convenes on April 5.
In the March 15 session, Saddam sought to project
the image of a man still in power addressing his
people in troubled times, even as Abdel-Rahman
repeatedly stabbed a button on his desk to shut off
Saddam’ s microphone.
At one point, Abdel-Rahman screamed at him,
“ Respect yourself!’ ’ Saddam shouted back, “ You
respect yourself!’ ’
“ You are a defendant in a major criminal case, concerning
the killing of innocents. You have to respond
to this charge,’ ’ Abdel-Rahman told him.
“ What about those who are dying in Baghdad?
Are they not innocents?’ ’ Saddam replied. “ I am talking
to the Iraqi people.’ ’
Saddam began his speech by declaring he was
the elected president, telling Iraqis “ of all religions and
sects ... I do not discriminate among you.’ ’
PHOTO BY JACOB SILBERBERG, POOL/AP
Iraqi Catholics
donate to
rebuild Samarra
Mosque
KIRKUK, Iraq/Zenit
Iraqi Catholics are taking up a collection for
the reconstruction of the destroyed
Samarra mosque, said Archbishop Louis
Sako of Kirkuk.
The gesture of solidarity comes in the wake of
the January 29 attacks against two churches in
Kirkuk, which claimed the lives of a 13-year-old
acolyte, Fadi Raad Elias, and other Catholics.
Those attacks were linked to the Western publication
of cartoons depicting Mohammed.
“ We are not facing civil war; it would be the
end of Iraq and no one wants this,” said
Archbishop Sako.
“ Iraqis are aware that
Above:
An Iraqi soldier
Saddam Hussein abused
stands guard on
them,” the Chaldean archbishop
added. “ In particular, a Shiite Mosque
the broken wall of
his regime killed many damaged by
Shiites and these people insurgents,
outside Samarra,
are now seeking vengeance 60 miles north
for the injustices suffered up of Baghdad.
to a few years ago.”
Archbishop Sako told the Italian bishops’
SIR news service that another goal of Shiite
violence, since the attack on the Shiite mosque
in Samarra, “ is to obtain by force more posts in
the government.”
The archbishop said he believes that “ it is
necessary to be at the side of our faithful to
give them all possible support. I try to
encourage them so that they will not be discouraged.
If someone wants us to abandon
the country, we will show that we are not
afraid, that we are strong and that we are
profoundly tied to our country.”
He said that he has visited “ the Muslim
leaders to express to them my total solidarity
over the destruction of the mosque of
Samarra.”
“ I have confirmed once again that we
Christians repudiate the attacks against the people
of Islam, as we consider abominable every
crime against any place of worship,” Archbishop
Sako said. “ In our community we are collecting
money which we will contribute toward the
mosque’ s reconstruction.”
Reprinted courtesy of the Assyrian
International News Agency (aina.org).
24 CHALDEAN NEWS APRIL 2006