Posted on 12/04/2005 2:28:42 PM PST by indcons
BAGHDAD, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Attacks on lawyers and flaws in the Iraqi justice system mean the trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of crimes against humanity will never satisfy international standards, a U.N. rights official said on Sunday.
John Pace, human rights chief at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, also condemned what he called illegal detentions by Iraqi and U.S. military authorities, including thousands of suspects held at Abu Ghraib prison.
Pace expressed deep concern over the progress of the Saddam trial, which has had two brief hearings of a few hours each since Oct. 19, and resumes on Monday.
"We're concerned already by what we have seen, we are concerned by the murder of two defence lawyers and the serious wounding of another," Pace told Reuters in Baghdad.
"There is already a paralysis in the legitimacy of the defence," he said in an interview at the U.N.'s fortified compound, adding that defence counsel had to be able to work freely and effectively for the trial to be considered fair.
"We believe that weakness in the system of administration of justice, in addition to the antecedents surrounding the establishment of this tribunal, will never be able to produce the kind of process that would be able to satisfy international standards," Pace said.
"We're very anxious about the tribunal. The legitimacy of the tribunal needs to be examined. It has been seriously challenged in many quarters."
Hearings were adjourned for a week last Monday so that two of Saddam's seven co-defendants, former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, could find new lawyers after one advocate was killed and another fled Iraq in fear last month. Another defence lawyer was killed separately.
The killing of lawyers Adil al-Zubeidi and Saadoun al-Janabi renewed international concerns about whether the trial could be held in Iraq amid widespread sectarian violence between Sunni Arabs dominant under Saddam and the Shi'ite majority.
The United Nations has no role in the trial, which is being conducted by a five-judge panel under a tribunal appointed by U.S. occupation forces, but has called for an independent probe into the deaths of the lawyers.
Rights groups have argued the Saddam trial should follow other war crimes cases like those for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia and be heard in an international forum like the International Criminal Court, which Washington does not support.
The Iraqi government and its U.S. backers say Iraqis should judge Saddam.
INTERNATIONAL FORUM
Pace said significant human rights issues were involved, which meant the trial should be heard in an international forum.
"The trial should serve as a deterrent against the repetition of the violations of human rights witnessed under Saddam Hussein," Pace said.
Saddam and his co-accused are charged with crimes against humanity in relation to the deaths of 148 men from the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after an attempt to kill him in 1982.
All defendants have pleaded not guilty. They could face death by hanging if convicted. The United Nations opposes the death penalty.
"There are several other serious human rights crimes other than the Dujail case that also need to be addressed," Pace said.
He also expressed serious concern about the continued detention of thousands of Iraqis in Iraqi and U.S. facilities.
The United Nations has called for an international probe into Iraqi jails after the discovery last month of an Interior Ministry bunker where 173 malnourished men and teenagers were found, some of whom showed signs of torture.
Pace said he was worried there were many more unofficial facilities yet to be found.
"Baghdad and other centres are littered with unofficial detention places, mainly in former palaces or guest houses or other areas around Baghdad which are notoriously used for detaining people," he said.
He said all those held in detention centres not run by the Ministry of Justice, including the roughly 14,000 being held in U.S. military facilities like Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, were technically being held against the law.
"None of these people have any real recourse to protection and therefore we speak publicly of the total breakdown in the protection of the individual in this country," Pace said.
The discovery of the Interior Ministry bunker fuelled sectarian tensions ahead of Dec. 15 elections.
Sunni Arab political leaders have demanded an international investigation into allegations that Shi'ite militias linked to the ministry were responsible for torture and abuse. The Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government has rejected the claims.
You don't give human rights to something which isn't human.
You expected anything less from the folks who brought you Oil For Food and Peacekkeepers haveing sex with minors?
I don't think they could even pull enough of their flunkies off the 10 to 12 year olds in Africa to field a platoon.
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