Haaretz
Tevet 10, 5767
In the
wake of the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Deputy
Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh on Saturday expressed his concerns about
Iraq's path in the post-Saddam era.
Sneh told Israel Radio that
Israel was concerned about the strengthening of Iranian influence in the
Shiite sections of southern Iraq and also in the central government. Iraq
had also become a regional "power station" for terror that could spread
chaos throughout the Middle East, he said.
"We have to be worried
about what is going to happen now," he said.
Also on Saturday, MK
Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al-Ra'am) criticized the execution of former Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein, calling the hanging an act of 'sadism.'
"Even
dictators deserve to be treated humanely," the Israeli Arab politician
said.
Meanwhile in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the execution of
Saddam sent many Palestinians into deep mourning as they struggled to come
to terms with the demise of perhaps their most steadfast
ally.
Unlike much of the rest of the world, where Saddam was viewed
as a brutal dictator who oppressed his people and started regional wars,
in the West Bank and Gaza he was seen as a generous benefactor unafraid to
fight for the Palestinian cause - even to the end.
Saddam's final
words were reportedly, "Palestine is Arab."
"We heard of his
martyrdom, and I swear to God we were deeply shaken from within," said
Khadejeh Ahmad from the Qadora refugee camp in the West Bank.
"Nobody was as supportive or stood with the Palestinians as he
did."
During the first Gulf War in 1991, the Palestinians cheered
Saddam's missile attacks on Israel, chanting "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel
Aviv," as the Scud missiles flew overhead.
He further endeared
himself to the Palestinians during the recent uprising with Israel by
giving US$25,000 to the family of each suicide bomber and US$10,000 for
each Palestinian killed in fighting. The stipends amounted to an estimated
US$35 million.
Saddam's support for the Palestinians - whose cause
is deeply popular with Arabs throughout the Middle East - was at least
partially aimed at gaining widespread support throughout the Arab
world.
Saddam's downfall - his defeat by America, his capture in a
filthy hole, his conviction and his execution - was seen as a tragedy by
Palestinians, who lionized Saddam and praised his willingness to stand up
to America and Israel, where other Arab leaders would not.
"Saddam
was a person who had the ability to say, 'No,' in the face of a great
country," said Hosni al Ejel, 46, from the al Amari refugee camp near
Ramallah.
"He wanted the Palestinian people to have a state and a
government and to be united. But God supports us, and we pray to God to
punish those who did this," said Ghanem Mezel, 72, from the town of Saeer
in the southern West Bank.
Ratib el-Imlah, the leader of the Arab
Liberation Front, a local branch of Saddam's Baath party, called Saturday
"a sad day in the lives of Palestinians, and in our Arab
nation."
Others were happy to hear Saddam's final words, knowing
that his support for them remained unshakable until the
end.
Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bethlehem opened a
"house of condolence," where dozens of people gathered on white chairs to
drink black coffee and mourn Saddam. The organizers hung Iraqi flags,
pictures of Saddam and played Iraqi revolutionary songs. Some vehicles had
black strips of fabric hanging from their antennae.
Mohammed
Barghouti, the minister of labor in the Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet,
said that although his Islamic group was often at odds with the secular
Saddam, his execution was wrong.
"The Palestinians had bonded with
Iraqis in brotherhood," he said.
British Foreign Secretary: He
has been held to account
Also on Saturday, U.S. President George W.
Bush called Saddam Hussein's execution an "important milestone" for Iraq
and "the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime."
"It is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a
democracy that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and be an ally in
the war on terror," he said in a statement issued from his ranch in Texas
late Friday local time.
Bush added that the execution marks the
"end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops" and
cautioned that his death will not halt the violence in Iraq.
U.S.
Senator Mitch McConnell said the world was now "rid of a brutal dictator."
"Saddam Hussein, found guilty before the world after a free and
fair trial, has finally met justice," the Kentucky Republican said in a
written statement. "The free people of Iraq must now go forward together
to build a unified nation, and leave behind sectarian divisions."
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said that Saddam
Hussein had been held to account for some of his crimes against the Iraqi
people.
"I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by
an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed
against the Iraqi people. He has now been held to account," she said in a
statement.
The execution has put the British government in a
difficult position because of its opposition to the death
penalty.
Britain was Bush's main ally during the 2003 invasion of
Iraq and still has some 7,200 troops in the country.
"The British
government does not support the use of the death penalty, in Iraq or
anywhere else," Beckett said.
"We advocate an end to the death
penalty worldwide, regardless of the individual or the crime. We have made
our position very clear to the Iraqi authorities, but we respect their
decision as that of a sovereign nation," she said.
"Iraq continues
to face huge challenges. But now it has a democratically elected
government, which represents all communities and is committed to fostering
reconciliation. We will continue to work with this government and with the
Iraqi people to build security and prosperity for the future," she
added.
A spokeswoman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said
Beckett's statement "spoke for the whole government including the prime
minister" and she did not expect Blair to say anything
more.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said while
Australia also opposes the death penalty, Saddam had faced justice and a
fair trial and had been found guilty of crimes against
humanity.
"The people of Iraq now know that their brutal dictator
will never come back to lead them," Downer said in a
statement.
"While many will continue to grieve over their personal
loss under his rule, his death marks an important step in consigning his
tyrannical regime to the judgment of history and pursuing a process of
reconciliation now and in the future."
Australia, a close ally of
the United States, was one of the first nations to commit troops to the
war in Iraq and maintains about 1,400 troops in and around
Iraq.
France, which advocates like all its European partners the
universal abolition of the death penalty, says the decision belongs to the
Iraqi
people and to the Iraqi sovereign authorities. France calls on
to all Iraqis to look forward and to work for reconciliation and national
unity. More than ever the aim must be a return to the full sovereignty and
stability of Iraq.
Iran: execution is a victory for the Iraqi
people
Iran termed the execution a "victory for the Iraqi people",
state news agency IRNA reported.
"The execution of Saddam Hussein
was a victory for the Iraqi people and no other country should take credit
for that," Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid-Reza told IRNA in a first
reaction by Tehran to the execution.
Assefi however criticized the
swift execution and speculated that the United States preferred to avoid
disclosure of more details in the court hearings.
Russia expressed
regret over the execution and concerns that his death could trigger a new
spiral of violence in Iraq.
"Regrettably, repeated calls by
representatives of various nations and international organisations to the
Iraqi authorities to refrain from capital punishment were not heard,"
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a
statement.
"Saddam Hussein's execution can lead to further
aggravation of the military and political situation and the growth of
ethnic and confessional tensions."
The Vatican said in a statement
that the execution was a "tragic event like all capital punishments" and
risked fomenting a spirit of vendetta and sowing new violence in
Iraq.
A senior Taliban leader, former Afghan Defense Minister
Mullah Obaidullah Akhund said "Bush and Blair have launched a crusade
against Muslims.
Saddam was hanged because he was a Muslim while
slaves like Jalal Talabani in Iraq and Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan have
been given power."
Richard Dicker, the director of Human Rights
Watch, criticized the trial preceding the execution.
"The test of a
government's commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats
its worst offenders ... History will judge the deeply flawed Dujail trial
and this execution harshly," he said.
Amnesty International:
Rushed execution is wrong
Larry Cox, the executive director of
Amnesty International USA also criticized the execution, and said, "The
rushed execution of Saddam Hussein is simply wrong. It signifies justice
denied for countless victims who endured unspeakable suffering during his
regime, and now have been denied their right to see justice
served.
A statement from Japan's foreign ministry said "we have
acknowledged that the judgment has been made according to due process and
pay respect to the legal procedures that the Iraqi government has taken.
That said, what is most important in our view is to make this sentence not
a new source of conflict but of reconciliation between the Iraqi
people.
Prior to Saturday's execution, the Yemeni and Libyan
governments attempted to make 11th hour appeals to spare Saddam Hussein's
life.
Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal wrote to the U.S.
and Iraqi presidents, urging them to save Saddam, according to the
official Yemeni news agency Saba.
Bajammal wrote to President Bush
that Saddam's execution would "increase the sectarian violence" in Iraq,
Saba reported.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi also made an indirect
appeal for Saddam's life, telling Al-Jazeera television that his trial was
illegal and that he should be retried by an international
court.
Saddam was a prisoner of war, and "those who arrested should
try him," Gadhafi said, referring to the American troops who captured
Saddam in December 2003.
Iraqi Americans cheer reports of
Saddam's execution
A crowd of Iraqi-Americans cheered and cried
outside a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan on Saturday morning as reports
filtered through that Saddam Hussein had been executed.
The crowd
of more than 150 had gathered in anticipation of Saddam's hanging late
Friday, praying for the death of the former Iraqi dictator as people
honked car horns, sang and danced in celebration.
Chants of "Now
there's peace, Saddam is dead" in English and Arabic rang into the night
in the Detroit suburb.
Imam Husham Al-Husainy, the director of the
Karbalaa Islamic Educational Center, said members of the center prayed for
Saddam's death. "The gift of our New Year is the murder of Saddam
Hussein," he said.
Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American
News and chairman of several local Arab-American groups, said Saddam's
death sentence is one more casualty in a war that has killed thousands,
and won't solve the power struggle among Iraqi religious
groups.
"The execution might bring some amusement and
accomplishment to the Bush administration, but it will not help the Iraqi
people," Siblani said. "The problem we're facing in Iraq is going to
multiply."
The Detroit area contains one of the United States'
largest concentrations of people with roots in the Middle East, including
an Iraqi community of Chaldeans, who are Catholic, Arabs and Kurds. Many
from Iraq fled their homeland during the rule of Saddam.
Buried
in Yemen
Ahead of the execution of Saddam Hussein, his daughter had
asked that his body be buried in Yemen, a source close to the family
said.
His daughter Raghd, who is exiled in Jordan, "is asking that
his body be buried in Yemen temporarily until Iraq is liberated and it can
be reburied in Iraq," a source close to the family said by
telephone.
Defense lawyer Issam Jhazzawi told Reuters earlier
Saddam's daughters were bracing for his imminent death. "The family are
praying for him every minute and are calling on God that He let his soul
rest in peace among the martyrs," he said.