Posted on 01/02/2007 7:26:26 PM PST by indcons
BAGHDAD, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Thousands of Sunni Arabs vented their anger on Tuesday over Saddam Hussein's execution as the Iraqi government promised an investigation into illicitly filmed footage of Shi'ite officials taunting him on the gallows.
A court official said he nearly halted the hanging over the jeering, which has inflamed sectarian passions in a nation already on the brink of civil war. Data showed civilian deaths hit a new record in December and were over 12,000 in 2006.
He also challenged government claims those who filmed the event were guards, saying they were senior officials.
In the video, widely seen on the Internet, observers chant the name of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr as Saddam stands on the scaffold, a convicted mass killer appearing dignified in contrast to the uproar below him.
But the government adviser who announced the investigations on Monday into the taunts and filming, accused the opposition of using them to deflect attention from Saddam's crimes: "This is an artificial uproar," Sami al-Askari told state television.
"They cannot say this court has been unjust and so they take this mistake and forget Saddam deserved to be executed," he said. "Saddam was treated well in court and on the scaffold.
"No one beat him or insulted him, yet Saddam tortured many Iraqis, executed thousands and buried them in mass graves."
By rushing through the execution just four days after the former president's appeal failed, over the reservations of the U.S. ambassador who urged a two-week delay, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki made good on a promise to fellow Shi'ites that Saddam would not live to see 2007.
But a moderate lawmaker from Saddam's Sunni community said the uncensored images of the hasty hanging were a blow to Maliki's calls for national reconciliation.
Prosecutor Munkith al-Faroon, who can be heard appealing for order on the Internet video, said he threatened to leave the room if the jeering did not stop. That would have halted the execution as a prosecution observer must be present by law.
"I threatened to leave," Faroon told Reuters. "They knew that if I left, the execution could not go ahead."
KILLING FIELDS
As U.S. President George W. Bush prepares a new strategy for a war in which the 3,000th soldier died at the weekend, Interior Ministry data showed at least 1,930 civilians died in political violence in December, almost certainly an underestimate.
Another 45 bodies were found around Baghdad on Tuesday, police said, most apparently victims of the kind of sectarian death squads that are tearing Iraqi society apart.
Saddam's grave in his native village, Awja, drew thousands more mourners on Tuesday, as it has each day since he was buried there in the dead of night early on Sunday.
Thousands of people marched in nearby Tikrit and in the northern city of Mosul, carrying portraits of Saddam and banners proclaiming him a martyr. In Samarra, Sunni mourners prayed at a shrine venerated principally by Shi'ites that was destroyed by a bomb in February, unleashing the present sectarian bloodbath.
Sunni neighbourhoods in Baghdad and other towns have seen similar demonstrations since Saturday.
The rapid execution has boosted Maliki's fragile authority among his fractious Shi'ite allies, but has angered many Sunnis.
Maliki said in an interview published on Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal he has no interest in a second term and wished he could be done before the end of his current term, in which rampant sectarian violence has defied hopes for unity.
Asked if he would accept a second term, he said: "Impossible."
"I wish it could be done with even before the end of this term. I would like to serve my people from outside the circle of senior officials, maybe through the parliament, or through working directly with the people," Maliki said.
As the Iraqi government mounted an investigation into how officials smuggled in mobile phone cameras, Faroon challenged the accounts of the justice minister and an adviser to the prime minister who said the illicit film was shot by a guard.
"Two officials were holding mobile phone cameras," said Faroon, who was a deputy prosecutor in the case for which Saddam was hanged and is the chief prosecutor in a second trial that will continue against his aides for genocide against the Kurds.
"One of them I know. He's a high-ranking government official," Faroon said, declining to name the man. "The other I also know by sight, though not his name. He is also senior."
Describing how U.S. troops searched the official delegation to attend the hanging, he said: "I don't know how they got their mobiles in because the Americans took all our phones, even mine which has no camera."
Khudayer al-Khuzai, the acting justice minister, said guards violated orders not to bring mobile phones or cameras. He vowed an investigation with "highest standards of discipline." (Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald)
What, are the Sunnis looking to get a "do over"?
as predicted here by several of us, when the video first broke.
Maliki is an idiot, a jerk. He couldn't even pull off a simple execution - professionally run and disciplined.
To get even, I propose the Sunnis should be allowed to hang Moqtada al-Sadr and taunt him with monkey sounds and "Saddam, Saddam, Saddam" chants. That will be helluva fun.
"Angry Sunnis March"
Yawn. These people march over literally EVERYTHING. It got really old a very long time ago.
no argument from me with that idea.
Yeah, and now I'm gonna march because they marched. I'm marching to march. Give me some marching orders. :-)
Are you German? :P
:-)
There's no doubt they've marched because 'Sadaam had escaped the hangman' if this vidio hadn't turned up.
Just heard Mark Ginsberg (sp?) on Fox News a little while ago. He was saying that one of the most powerful forces in the Muslim world is humiliation, and that the video showed Saddam, a Sunni, being humiliated by Shi'ites at the beginning of a Sunni feast. His opinion is that because of this, the execution will backfire on Maliki, and by extension, the U.S.
We'll see...
Yeah, I've got marching orders for you. They've stopped serving green Jell-o in the cafeteria. It's an OUTRAGE, I tell ya!
So, did he describe what form this "backfire" will take?
If anyone will receive backlash, it will be al-Sadr, and he deserves it. He spoiled the fun for the Kurds, embarrassed Maliki and other Shias, and humiliated many Sunnis.
He overplayed his hand this time (once again), and one can hope he will pay the bill for all his mischief and mayhem sooner rather than later.
The lack of green Jell-o IS an outrage. Gather everyone can and we meet at the cafateria at dawn. If a few cars get burned, that's our Constitutional right to express our outrage.
:-)
Saddam one the worst mass murderers in history is dead and at the end that is what matters. Do you really believe that the Sunni Arabs and Saddam loyalists will be less angry if one witness or guard did not have fighting words with Saddam before he got hanged? You need to get real and stop being obsessed with superfacial stuff.
No doubt.
Let's see, no riots -- just marches and protests. Sounds like democracy to me.
"Do you really believe that the Sunni Arabs and Saddam loyalists will be less angry if one witness or guard did not have fighting words with Saddam before he got hanged?"
That's a good point. Do you think the execution on Id has any effect at all? I don't think so but you really know that part of the world.
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