Posted on 10/30/2006 10:14:14 PM PST by HAL9000
The court trying Saddam Hussein for genocide has heard testimony from Kurdish witnesses describing alleged chemical attacks on their villages.Villagers spoke of their memories of Operation Anfal, a crackdown against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s.
They described a smell "like rotten apples" minutes after the bombings, comparing them to "Doomsday".
Testimony came after the ousted Iraqi president's defence stormed out, saying the trial could not be fair.
Chief defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi walked out of court after requests made in an apparent end to the boycott of the genocide trial were turned down.
After a heated exchange, the judge appointed replacement lawyers for Saddam Hussein who rejected them, insisting he wanted to be defended by his own lawyers.
Bodies 'piled up'
Jamal Sulaiman Qadir, 50, described approaching his village moments after four warplanes dropped chemical bombs on it.
"That day was like Doomsday. I could hear children crying for their fathers and women crying for their husbands. The bodies were piled up," he said.
"Some belonged to children who were still clutching lollipops or Eid sweets because it was the last day of Ramadan."
Saddam Hussein and six other defendants are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for a 1987-88 offensive against Iraq's Kurdish population.
Prosecutors say some 180,000 people died during the Anfal offensive.
A verdict on a separate trial is due on Sunday. Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer has warned of civil war if a death sentence is given.
Defence lawyers had been boycotting the trial since 24 September, after the sacking of the previous presiding judge for alleged bias towards Saddam Hussein.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Dulaimi filed 12 requests, including that the court should allow non-Iraqi lawyers to attend the trial without prior court permission, and that the court investigate an alleged beating of one of the defendants by court bailiffs.
He also clashed with Judge Mohammad al-Khalifa over the judge's order that Mr Dulaimi stop referring to Saddam Hussein as "Mr President" and "your Excellency".
Islam. The religion of peace.
But don't expect The Party of Compassion to care one whit about this. Tehy're too cusy blaming President Bush for Darfur, where tehy have suddenly gotten concerned jsut when (1) there is an election coming up and (2) they can possibly useit, tehy think, ot divert some resources from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Only mindless anti-Americans like Democrats could see Saddam as a victim.
Saddam needs to join his sons in hell.
Bump to the top.
"Prosecutors say some 180,000 people died during the Anfal offensive."
What counts is the number of U.S. soldiers lost in Iraq!
Nearly 4,000 now after 3 years! Nearly the U.S. homicide rate. (Sorry.)
What counts to the anti-american left is not the U.S. death toll. No...It is the loss of control of U.S. $$$!
Those $$$ could be buying votes by creating government backed jobs. Even now I read in this election how the Police and Fire Dept are supporting this and that propositon.
Why? It benefits them with even higher wages and benefits, greater than what I can get in the commercial market with a post grad degree.
Something is really, really wrong when government service becomes the career choice and free enterprise becomes the failed career.
So a verdict is due on a separate trial Sunday...any word on when this entire circus will come to an end?
I figured they would have hung him ages ago.
That is right. The sooner he is dead the better! Damn lawyers want to dither over fine legal points knowing there is no doubt of his guilt. It is a show trial like the Nuremberg Tribunal. I an instance like Saddam, he should be kept alive just as long as he has intellegence value, then killed.
Mass destruction is 190,000 and up....this doesn't count.
This is the BBC. "Alleged" attacks. I bet that the BBC in the past reported these attacks as fact.
btt
"alleged chemical attacks" alleged? Its not alleged its fact. Thats like saying the alleged blitzkrieg, the alleged Normandy Invasion, the alleged attack on Pearl Harbor.
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