The World in Brief
AP
Issue date: 8/24/06 Section: World
Survivors say many villages were razed and countless young men disappeared.
"It's time for humanity to know ... the magnitude and scale of the crimes committed against the people of Kurdistan," the lead prosecutor, Munqith al-Faroon, said in his opening statement.
"Entire villages were razed to the ground, as if killing the people wasn't enough," he said, displaying photos of dead mothers and children. "Wives waited for their husbands, families waited for their children to return, but to no avail."
The prosecution also accuses the army of using prohibited mustard gas and nerve agents in the campaign, and a map of northern Iraq in the courtroom had red stickers on locations where the weapons were allegedly used. The trial does not deal with the most notorious gassing, the March 1988 attack on Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds. That incident will be part of a separate investigation by the Iraqi High Tribunal.
Saddam became furious Monday when prosecutors spoke of Kurdish women being raped in prison during the campaign.
"I can never accept the claim that an Iraqi woman was raped while Saddam is president," he shouted, banging on a podium in front of him and pointing a finger at the prosecutors. "How could I walk with my head up?"
"An Iraqi woman raped while Saddam is the leader?" he bellowed over and over in a rage. He said that during the 1990 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, he heard a soldier raped an Arab woman, so he ordered him tried and then hanged "for three days at the site of the crime."
It was one of the few outbursts in a session that was generally calm and businesslike, unlike the many arguments and disturbances of the Dujail trial. After a nearly five-hour session, the trial adjourned until Tuesday.
If a death sentence in the Dujail trial is upheld on appeal while the Anfal case is still being tried, Iraqi law allows for the sentence to be carried out against Saddam, while the case would continue against the other defendants. Tribunal officials, however, have been unclear whether the second trial would be completed.
"It's time for humanity to know ... the magnitude and scale of the crimes committed against the people of Kurdistan," the lead prosecutor, Munqith al-Faroon, said in his opening statement.
"Entire villages were razed to the ground, as if killing the people wasn't enough," he said, displaying photos of dead mothers and children. "Wives waited for their husbands, families waited for their children to return, but to no avail."
The prosecution also accuses the army of using prohibited mustard gas and nerve agents in the campaign, and a map of northern Iraq in the courtroom had red stickers on locations where the weapons were allegedly used. The trial does not deal with the most notorious gassing, the March 1988 attack on Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds. That incident will be part of a separate investigation by the Iraqi High Tribunal.
Saddam became furious Monday when prosecutors spoke of Kurdish women being raped in prison during the campaign.
"I can never accept the claim that an Iraqi woman was raped while Saddam is president," he shouted, banging on a podium in front of him and pointing a finger at the prosecutors. "How could I walk with my head up?"
"An Iraqi woman raped while Saddam is the leader?" he bellowed over and over in a rage. He said that during the 1990 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, he heard a soldier raped an Arab woman, so he ordered him tried and then hanged "for three days at the site of the crime."
It was one of the few outbursts in a session that was generally calm and businesslike, unlike the many arguments and disturbances of the Dujail trial. After a nearly five-hour session, the trial adjourned until Tuesday.
If a death sentence in the Dujail trial is upheld on appeal while the Anfal case is still being tried, Iraqi law allows for the sentence to be carried out against Saddam, while the case would continue against the other defendants. Tribunal officials, however, have been unclear whether the second trial would be completed.
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