Saddam asks nation to reconcile

BAGHDAD – Saddam Hussein’s trial for genocide resumed yesterday, with one of the defence lawyers breaking his boycott of the proceedings to ask the court to investigate an alleged ransacking of the defence team’s offices.

Wearing his usual dark suit, Saddam quietly took his seat in the dock, from where he had made an impassioned plea for Iraqis to forgive and make peace. “I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands,” Saddam said Tuesday, two days after he was convicted of mass murder in a separate trial and condemned to death.Defence lawyer Badee Izzat Aref told the court yesterday that it was time the authorities investigated the break-in at the defence team’s offices in the high-security Green Zone of Baghdad last month.The lawyers have said the intruders damaged and stole dozens of documents, undermining the defence’s effort in the trial.”I demand the opening of an investigation on the American side because the area of the offices is guarded by the Americans, who would shoot anybody who comes near,” Aref told the court.Aref said he suspected that the Americans may have received the stolen documents and have handed them over to the prosecution.It was the first time that Aref appeared in the court since September 21 when the defence team announced a boycott of the trial to protest the court’s rejection of their requests.Chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa ordered the prosecution to give a new set of documents to the defence team.Saddam and his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for his alleged use of chemical weapons, and five other former members of Saddam’s regime are facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for a crackdown on Iraq’s Kurdish population in 1987-88.Nampa-AP”I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands,” Saddam said Tuesday, two days after he was convicted of mass murder in a separate trial and condemned to death.Defence lawyer Badee Izzat Aref told the court yesterday that it was time the authorities investigated the break-in at the defence team’s offices in the high-security Green Zone of Baghdad last month.The lawyers have said the intruders damaged and stole dozens of documents, undermining the defence’s effort in the trial.”I demand the opening of an investigation on the American side because the area of the offices is guarded by the Americans, who would shoot anybody who comes near,” Aref told the court.Aref said he suspected that the Americans may have received the stolen documents and have handed them over to the prosecution.It was the first time that Aref appeared in the court since September 21 when the defence team announced a boycott of the trial to protest the court’s rejection of their requests.Chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa ordered the prosecution to give a new set of documents to the defence team.Saddam and his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali” for his alleged use of chemical weapons, and five other former members of Saddam’s regime are facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for a crackdown on Iraq’s Kurdish population in 1987-88.Nampa-AP