F O C U S

Whose Cause the Shocking Execution of Saddam Hussein serve?

THREE years back when American lead coalition unmindful of the international conventions and world public opinion attacked Iraq, the fate of Saddam Hussein’s was sealed. On the morning of December 30 Saddam was executed during the time of Eid Al Adah — the feast of sacrifice, which symbolises forgiveness and reconciliation. Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab daily Al Quds Al Arabi, finds mischief in the timing. He points out, "The timing of the execution is an affront to all Arabs and Muslims. It is an act of scorn against a great religion by the United States and the Iraqi government." Apart from the Americans, Sunnis blame the Iraqi Government showed sectarian bias and revenge. Unlike the Sunnis who began observing the festival on December 30, Eid festivities for Shias began next day.

 When hooded executioners put the rope around the neck of the 69-year-old former Iraqi president, a well drawn out plan had been put into action. A well-used stooge who dared to defy his masters was punished. And with his shocking execution shown around the world by television networks also shut lot of truth that Saddam knew about the complicity of America and England when he was ruthlessly killing Iraqi citizens and gassing Iranian soldiers. Who provided, technology, funds and weapons in that eight-year long war with Iran and to sustain the dictator in position?

Let it also be stated   that his executioners and the occupation forces lead by America are as guilty of heinous crimes of killing over 6.5-lakh innocent Iraqis as Saddam Hussein and colleagues were. Yet one crime cannot be matched by another crime and called justice. Nor it would end the hard times the poor and hapless Iraqis are having at the hands of first Saddam and now the occupation forces. The day Saddam was hanged, 72 innocent lives were lost. Whose cause did this serve?

It may be true as the acclaimed journalist Robert Fisk wrote that even after capturing Iraq and its president, the rulers in America and England were still scared of the truth about their complicity in crimes committed by Saddam over the years. Fisk wrote: “ The shameless, outrageous, covert military support which the United States - and Britain - gave to Saddam for more than a decade remains the one terrible story which our presidents and prime ministers do not want the world to remember. And now Saddam, who knew the full extent of that Western support - given to him while he was perpetrating some of the worst atrocities since the Second World War - is dead.” And he counts in details that assistance. “After Saddam seized power, US intelligence provided his minions the home addresses of communists in Iraq to beat the Soviet Union's influence. Saddam's Mukhabarat visited every home, arrested the occupants and their families, and butchered them.” These two countries supported and provided arms and ammunition besides logistic support in Iraq’s war against Iran. Was it not the Americans ambassador to Iraq who egged Saddam to attack Kuwait in 1991? Saddam like many other dictators was audacious enough to accept the American ploy that Kuwait belonged as indeed it once did to Iraq and then had to face the consequences and fight against the Americans. That brought misery to millions of Iraqis untold misery as U N sanctions deprived them of food and medicines. 2.5 million children lost their lives.

There is indeed no count of the crimes of Saddam on the Shias, Kurds and Iranians or his political opponents. But he kept the country secular and fought the fundamentalists. He also built a modern Iraq that was envy of many Arab countries.  He would go down in history as he was; for some a butcher and for others a hero who defied the American war lords and shamed his wooded executioners by refusing to wear the hood and faced death bravely.” God is great. The nation will be victorious. Palestine belongs to the Arabs." These were his last words as lever was pulled, the trapdoor swung and his body dropped, half a meter. And these echoed through out the world, more particularly among the Arabs. Munir Haddad, an Iraqi judge who witnessed the hanging, said Saddam "called for forgiveness and love among Iraqis but also stressed that the Iraqis should fight the Americans and the Persians." Saddam in his last moments was political agile and sent his followers an fellow Arabs a ck clear political message. His letter two days earlier had a similar ring.

As American president George W Bush hailed the "act of justice" and exiled Iraqis danced in the streets, celebrating from Sydney to San Francisco, the two bombs of the post-Saddam world exploded in   Baghdad, killing 80 people and injuring 62. The morgue was hastily filled with bodies. Execution of Saddam would neither bring Iraq to any just order nor peace. Even President Bush admitted when he said,” Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but 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." There are perhaps not many takers of this wish even in America. In fact, it would only escalate violence and involve more American forces and until the final tragedy dawns on those who attacked Iraq. As Vatican acknowledged, “ Killing the guilty one is not the way to rebuild justice and reconcile society. On the contrary, there is the risk that the spirit of revenge is fuelled.”

World is divided horizontally. Only rulers in America and England, the occupation army and a section of the Shiites like Iran and the puppet regime in Iraq and some of the public mesmerized by partisan media reportage were happy at the execution. For rest, many countries and their citizens, it was an outrageous act. America disregarded the world opinion and cared little of justice that it had no business to attack particularly when its subterfuge of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction was exposed and did not even allow the international court of criminal justice to try Saddam for his alleged crimes against humanity. It was a puppet regime and trumpet court that sentenced him to death and he was quickly executed.

Would the world be safer after the execution of Saddam? The question haunts everyone. At a surface level, Iraqis may be divided, reflecting tragic sectarian divides, in their reactions to the end of Saddam Hussein. As many fear his hanging is expected to lead to major reprisals from the Sunni resistance to the occupation and push Iraq further into the quagmire of violence. It will also fuel anger and hatred towards the United States among the people of various countries in the Arab world. Those condemning this outrageous case of "victor's justice," they must express their solidarity with the people of Iraq, whose sufferings defy any logic. These must end quickly and the world leaders owe this to future generations.

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Neo imperialists and United Nations
Gobind Thukral

THERE was irony when Inter Press Service honoured Kofi Annan, the outgoing Secretary General of United Nations with its 2006 International Achievement Award. It was in recognition of “his lasting contributions to peace, security, development, gender empowerment and human rights, and his commitment to help the world's poorer nations to develop”. Anan started as a choice of the authoritative America and was ending his 10 year term by telling America "no nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others." Once a pliable bureaucrat he succeeded Boutros Boutos Ghali who seemed to echo third world concerns. IPS is an independent body of journalists that provides a third world prospective worldwide to the media.

Annan from Ghana had spent over 44 years in the U.N. system, serving the last 10 years (1997-2006) as the chief administrative officer of the 192-member world body. And, when he hands over the charge on December 31 to South Korea's former foreign minister Ban Ki-moon, it is a cash strapped body where big powers play their wretched games. In the process, the U N becomes a tool for wars and exploitation. Yet Anann during the last five year focused on the poor, deprived and the war ravaged regions urging for peace and making every effort that he could to get economic justice. He could stop no war, be it Iraq, Israeli Palestinian areas including Lebanon or Congo.  Yet he remained engaged through out to promote peace and justice.

If his efforts to bring some help and the war ravaged had limited success with genocide in Darfur and Congo, the UN itself was mired in corruption like food for oil and other scandals. Iran, Iraq, the Middle East and Sudan's Darfur region dominated even the final day-to-day business that Annan was conducting in the last couple or of weeks.

Ban takes over a cash-strapped organisation which some critics find it mismanaged, inefficient, over-staffed and politically-manipulated primarily by the United States and four other veto-wielding big powers: Britain, France, China and Russia. Ban claims to be a "harmoniser, balancer and mediator".

Anann given the hegemonic character of American politics and its desire to exploit energy resources in the West Asia, Latin America and diamonds in Congo or other mineral wealth by stealth ways could do little for world peace. At times he ploughed a lonely furrow as the very structure of the United Nations dominated by permanent members of the Security Council rendered the General Assembly as a super club for good life. It has become a toothless and a kind of   costly recreational center for prime ministers, foreign ministers and diplomats. For those who take the job seriously it is just a good debate. 20th century has been the bloodiest century in human history despite the presence of such an august body of countries across the globe.

Ban will be inheriting a long catalogue of unresolved and thorny political issues facing the world that include a nuclear-armed North Korea and a potential nuclear power in Iran. Equally daunting is the lethal environment of insurgent-ridden Iraq and Afghanistan; the absence of a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur of Sudan where the government has just reduced the UN to a laughing stock. And the Palestine, the world's longest running trouble spot and the threat of renewed civil war in Lebanon are crying for justice and peace. The world body has failed to deliver any.

In the social and economic fields, the task for the new Secretary General is equally daunting. The fight to defeat global poverty, elimination hunger, prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS, and ensuring environmental sustainability are as important as war and here the world’s business class just does not help. . Over 1,016 million people are poor in today’s world of plenty. One billion can not read or write.1.2 billion lack access to safe drinking water and 800 million go hungry every day. Every day 50,000 die due to poverty- related causes. This is our world in 21st century.  The U N has envisaged a target date of 2015.  Ban shall have to help forge a global agreement on climate change beyond 2012, when the current Kyoto Protocol ends. Here again the American government would be a big stumbling block despite new awareness about the climate degradation and the energy crisis. It is the only major country that has not signed the protocol.

The United Nations in the 21st century has to show more accountability, transparency, ethics, efficiency and effectiveness. And, one of the biggest political challenges facing Ban would be his relations with the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia. They have collectively ensured his election as Secretary General. these countries would demand more loyalty   The international community at large, at the same time will be closely watching Ban's five-year tenure as to how he deals with the five big powers to make the world  a better place for  millions .  Observers at the UN headquarters in New York are asking; how vulnerable will Ban be to U.S. manipulation? And will he cave in to political pressure from the big powers? And how outspoken will he be in expressing his views in public?

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