Posted on 09/12/2006 7:50:53 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A Kurdish villager testified Monday that he left behind his mother and two sisters as he fled a 1988 attack by Saddam Hussein's forces. Years later, he said, he found his relatives' identity cards in a mass grave.
Saddam listened silently but lost his temper when a lawyer described Iraqi Kurdish rebels as freedom fighters.
"You are agents of Iran and Zionism! We will crush your heads!" Saddam shouted.
Ghafour Hassan Abdullah, 33, told the court that Iraqi planes gave cover to advancing ground troops, who shelled his village and other Kurdish communities in February 1988.
"At night, I heard the screaming of women and children," he said. He said he fled to neighboring Iran and later discovered his mother's and two sisters' ID cards in a mass grave near the northern Iraqi village of Hatra.
Before the judge cut off his microphone, Saddam, has insisted that the crackdown was directed against Kurdish guerrillas who were allied with Iran, said that "in any country in the world where there is rebellion, the authorities ask the army to defeat it."
The prosecution demanded that Saddam's statement be considered a confession, a request noted by the presiding judge.
Saddam and six others are on trial for their roles in the 1987-88 campaign known as Operation Anfal, launched after a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq during the final stages of the 1980-88 war with Iran.
If convicted, the defendants could face death by hanging.
"Congratulations! You are in a cage, Saddam," Abdullah said as he stared at the ousted president.
Tuesday's session is the fifth since Saddam's trial on genocide charges opened on Aug. 21.
Abdullah demanded compensation for the loss of his family and asked rhetorically why the Kurds, a non-Arab minority, were suppressed under Saddam's regime.
"Why? Because we are Kurds. Why did all disasters befall on us? Because we are Kurds," he said.
On Monday, Saddam accused Kurdish witnesses of trying to create ethnic divisions by alleging chemical attacks and mass arrests in their villages during the Anfal crackdown, which the prosecution says claimed up to 180,000 lives.
Saddam is awaiting an October verdict in the first case against him — the nine-month trial over the killings of 148 Shiites in Dujail. He and seven co-defendants also could face the death penalty in that case .
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sits in the dock as his trial on genocide charges resumes at the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006. The trial resumed Tuesday, a day after the fallen leader accused Kurdish witnesses of trying to create ethnic divisions by alleging chemical attacks and mass arrests in their villages during a 1980s crackdown that the prosecution says claimed up to 180,000 lives. (AP Photo/Erik de Castro, Pool)
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Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sits in the dock as his trial on genocide charges resumes at the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2006. The trial resumed Tuesday, a day after the fallen leader accused Kurdish witnesses of trying to create ethnic divisions by alleging chemical attacks and mass arrests in their villages during a 1980s crackdown that the prosecution says claimed up to 180,000 lives. (AP Photos/Erik de Castro, Pool)
We were able to string up the top Nazis in less time than it's taking to execute this monster. Let's hurry up already!
Has the Boston Globe filed an Amicus Brief on his behalf?
Why is THIS still alive??
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