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

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka C;ape-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Ozeti
height of the Iran-Iraq war-was chosen
because it was relatively simple and welldocumented.
Tomany Sunnis, however, it
looked as if Iraq's current leaders, who
were Iran's allies m the war, were punishing
Mr Hussein for repressing enemy activ-
Ity on the home front at a time of national
peril. Dunng the tnal, the defendants
played on Amenca's own spotted humanrights
record in Iraq to give a spurious polish
to memories of the prevIous regime.
As for impartial justice, It is probably
too early to judge whether Mr Hussein received
a fair hearing. Thejudges are scheduled
to produce a lengthy written document
explaining their verdict within the
next few weeks. The court admitted into
evidence several documents purporting to
show that Mr Hussein had approved the
brutal punishment of Dujail, whose resIdents
were arrested and taken to a desert
pnson, tortured, and in the case of 148 of
them sentenced to death.
The trouble is that the tnal did not give
the appearance of impartiality. Throughout
it, leadmg Shia politicians including
Nun al-Mahki, the prime minister, urged a
guilty verdict, and sometimes complained
about the presiding judge. About a third of
the way through, the first judge, Rizgar
Amin, resigned because of thiS pohtical
pressure. In a second trial, still under way,
that covers the genocide of more than
100,000 Kurds in the late 1980s, the government
actually ousted the presiding
Judge for having made remarks deemed to
be sympathetic to the defendants. Little
surprise that some Sunnis dismIss the trial
as "victor's justice".
:What happens now? Death sentences
are supposed to be carried out 30 days
after the appeals are exhausted, and the
duratIOn of the appeals process is hmited.
Mr Maliki has said that he expects Mr Hussem
to be executed before the end of this
year; others expect the earliest likely date
to be February. There have been calls in
the Western press for Mr Hussein to be
spared in the interests of national reconcihation,
but this would be pohtically dangerous
for Mr Maliki to do, even If he
wanted to.
The prime minister ISconstantly under
attack from Shia radicals who have no interest
in pleasing either the Sunnis or the
Americans, and even now worry that Mr
Hussein's Baath party is planning a comeback.
Mr Maliki seems to be taking advantage
of the boost in Shla confidence to
reach out to Sunnis in other ways; the government
announced the day after the verdict
that it had drafted a law that would allow
some of the former Baathists purged
from official posts to return to public life.
Mr Hussein's execution mIght provide
other opportunines for concessions.
But it could also cause a surge in guerrilla
activity. The level of attacks and estimates
of insurgent numbers have been remarkably
constant smce April 2004. The
most active groups are nominally Islamlst,
and will probably neither be unduly outraged
nor demoralised by the executIOn of
a leader who clearly failed to protect his
country against foreign invaders.
But many IraqIs admit that they still feel
an involuntary shiver of terror when Saddam
appears on television, or even when
his name is mentioned, so fully did he
dominate the country during his three de-
A premonition
of things to come
cades in power. The image of hIm dropping
from the gallows, particularly if it is
televised as many Shias demand, could
cause a huge psychologIcal jolt. Previous
shocks, such as the American assault on
Fallujah m Apnl 2004, or the demolition
(presumably by Sunni terronsts) of the
Shias' Askanya shnne in February 2006,
did indeed cause an upsurge of violence.
Three years of civil strife, anarchy, and
sectarian bloodshed have so transformed
Iraqi pohtics that the demIse of a symbol
of the former regIme may be urelevant.
But Mr Hussein has been such a powerful
presence for so long that carrying his sentence
through to its gnm conclusion will,
like so much else in Iraq's recent history, be
a dangerous leap into the dark. •
Turkey and Europe
Pulling the rug out from under?
"THE reform demands of the great
powers never end." So wrote Abulhamld
II, a sultan who ruled the Ottoman
empIre in its dying days. This behef,
shared by millions of citizens of modern
Turkey, Will have been strengthened by
the European Commission's latest progress
report on Turkey's membership, unveiled
in Brussels on November 8th.
The document may not lead instantly
to a "train wreck", the term coined by the
European Union's enlargement commissioner,
alii Rehn, for a decision to suspend
EU membership talks with Turkey. But it
leaves the threat on the table unless Turkey
meets EU demands to open its ports and
anports to Greek-Cypriot ships and aircraft
by mid-December, when European
leaders hold a summit in Brussels.
Scrambling to avert a complete breach,
TInkey's moderate Islamist prime mlmster,
Recep TaYYlpErdogan, hinted on November
6th that he mIght amend (but not
scrap) the infamous article 301of the penal
code that has allowed the prosecution of
scores of Turkish academics and writers
on charges of "msulting Turklshess". The
law was harshly criticised m the commission's
report, as was continued repressIOn
of non-Muslim mmorities and Kurds and
inadequate civlhan control over meddle-
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