Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka (:ape-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti
Saddam
returns to
a 2nd trial
Ex-Iraqi ruler shows
his shifting moods
By John F. Burns
BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein returned
to court Tuesday, to the dock
where he erupted in fury and frustration
against the death sentence imposed
on him 48 hours earlier. But this time, it
was a different Saddam who showed up,
a courteous arguer of legal points who
seemed to have put aside his tempestuous
performance of Sunday to concentrate
on his ongoing legal battles.
The former Iraqi ruler was back before
the Iraqi High Tribunal, but in a
different case, involving the so-called
Anfal military campaign in the late
1980s in which, prosecutors contend, as
many as 180,000 Kurdish civilians were
killed. The Anfal case has been in progress
since August, again with Saddam
as principal defendant, as he was in the
narrower Dujail case that brought him
and two associates the verdicts of death
by hanging Sunday.
The resumption of the Anfal case
marked the 21st day of testimony by
Iraqi Kurds who survived the chemical
weapons attacks and mass graves that
marked the campaign against the
Kurds. Court officials have said they ex-
Turkey and the ED
Turkey's negotiations to join
the European Union, begun
with high hopes, have become
an increasingly sour
affair. The latest blow falls this week,
when the European Commission releases
a report accusing Turkey of
slowing the pace of domestic reforms
and refusing to normalize relations
with Cyprus.
All true, alas. But the real question
is whether Europe and Turkey still
have the will to make accession work
or whether both sides are cynically
looking for an excuse to pull the
plug. That would be a serious and
fateful error.
There is no mystery to either side's
declining enthusiasm. In Europe, the
rise of violent Islamic radicalism and
the war in Iraq have created understandable
wariness over letting a
huge Muslim country into the club. In
Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
pect the case to last well into next year,
possibly into the spring or summer. But
the question now is whether Sadda~
will live to see its conclusion, or, as Iraqi
officials say is now more likely, be taken
to the gallows weeks or even months before
the Anfal verdicts are delivered.
Saddam's shifting mood has been a
feature at both trials. As he did Sunday,
he has dismissed them as show trials,
with an outcome, his execution, pre-ordained
by the Americans. Often, he has
used outbursts from the dock to call on
Sunni insurgents to continue their
battle to drive the Americans out.
But he has also shifted, sometimes
within a minutes, to a lawyerly mode,
counseling the judges on poin.ts