Posted on 06/27/2005 6:23:53 PM PDT by blam
Aziz blames bloody campaign to suppress the Shias on Saddam
By Our Foreign Staff
(Filed: 28/06/2005)
Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi politician who was one of Saddam Hussein's closest associates, blames the bloody suppression of a Shia uprising on his former boss in a video released yesterday.
The footage, given out by the tribunal prosecuting members of the deposed regime, is likely to demoralise Saddam loyalists involved in the Iraqi insurgency because it contradicts claims by Aziz's lawyer that he would never betray Saddam.
68-year-old Tariq Aziz [right] appears before the special tribunal
Under questioning from an investigative judge six days ago, 68-year-old Aziz, a former deputy prime minister, accused the ousted president of ordering the savage response to the Shia revolt without consulting aides.
Aziz, who was dressed all in white with his prisoner number, C1, stencilled in black on his chest, said he had nothing to do with the quashing of the 1991 uprising which left thousands of Shias dead.
The judge asked: "Who issued this order?"
Aziz answered: "The president himself."
Asked about the positions he held in March 1991, Aziz replied: "I was foreign minister. I had no effective role at that time, I was sitting inside the foreign affairs building."
The judge pressed him. "Weren't you also deputy prime minister, a member of the Revolutionary Command Council and Ba'ath Regional Command?"
"Yes," said Aziz.
He was then asked if had been notified, as a member of the command council, about a 1991 decree which gave regional commanders of the ruling Ba'ath party "amnesty and punishment powers".
"It was not part of my scope of work as foreign minister," he said. After some prompting by the judge, he added: "I heard that some members of the regional command went to the restive areas in the south, but what they did I do not know. They were not reporting to me since I was foreign minister."
He said Saddam was taking decisions "without discussing them with us".
"As head of the Revolution Command Council he was behaving as if his decisions carried the weight of the law."
The tape, which also shows the questioning of his co-accused, Saber Abdulaziz al-Douri, an ex-chief of military intelligence, shows Aziz's lawyer taking notes.
The video of Aziz, who surrendered to American forces shortly after the overthrow of the regime, is the fifth to be released by the special tribunal in recent weeks and follows one that showed Saddam being questioned.
It is the first such footage to include dialogue between investigative judges and the accused.
There was no explanation as to why the sound from Aziz's evidence was released, but it seemed likely that prosecutors were seeking to score a propaganda victory prior to Saddam's trial, as they seek to build a compelling and watertight case.
No trial date has been set for Saddam or the unknown number of Ba'athist allies who are also in US custody.
The tribunal was set up to try crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during Saddam's rule.
He faces charges that include killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing Kurds in Halabja, invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing Kurdish and Shia uprisings in 1991.
Specific indictments have yet to be made public.
Ahhhh,.... the RATS are turning on each other in an effort to escape the gallows.
Aziz is the token "Christian" Ive been expecting him to turn for a while.
I never, ever liked that bast*rd.
Every time that he came on CNN, in the lead up to the first war, my blood pressure rose.
He was a snake, and I was worried that he would somehow escape prosecution.
His attempts to keep the focus away from the fact that he had multiple appointments auger well for the prosecution of this trial
This is great news.
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