Saddam’s genocide trial resumes

BAGHDAD – A shaken 57-year-old Kurd testified yesterday that Saddam Hussein aggressively told him to “shut up” when he pleaded for the release of nine relatives who disappeared in an offensive on his northern Iraqi village nearly two decades ago.

“I told Saddam, ‘Sir, my family members were arrested,”‘ farmer Abdullah Mohammed Hussein recounted. “Saddam asked me where, and I told him, ‘in my village.’ Saddam said, ‘Shut up.Your family is gone in the Anfal,”‘ Hussein said, referring to Iraq’s 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq.The witness looked anxious Thursday as he sat in a Baghdad courtroom giving the opening testimony in the fourth court session this week in the former Iraqi leader’s trial on charges of committing atrocities against Kurds in northern Iraq nearly two decades ago.Hussein said he had not been shy about arguing with Saddam, whom he had been allowed to see in response to a plea he presented to local authorities in his village.Speaking in Kurdish through an Arabic translator, Hussein said Saddam told him, “Shut up.Don’t talk anymore.Get out of here.””I saluted him, saying, ‘Yes, sir.’ And I left.I consoled myself, thinking that Saddam may feel sorry for me and set my family free.I was very sad.But I really hoped he would release them,” he said.Saddam sat silently, looking at the witness.At one point, he asked the chief judge for a pen and paper to take notes.Hussein, a Kurd, had no family relation to Saddam, a Sunni Muslim Arab.The witness said that only two years ago, local authorities in his village told him they found the remains of three of his relatives in a mass grave.He said the whereabouts of the rest of them was unknown.He also demanded “financial and moral” compensation for his loss.He told the court that he wished to “lodge a complaint” against Saddam and his cousin and co-defendant, “Chemical” Ali al-Majid.Nampa-AP”Saddam asked me where, and I told him, ‘in my village.’ Saddam said, ‘Shut up.Your family is gone in the Anfal,”‘ Hussein said, referring to Iraq’s 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq.The witness looked anxious Thursday as he sat in a Baghdad courtroom giving the opening testimony in the fourth court session this week in the former Iraqi leader’s trial on charges of committing atrocities against Kurds in northern Iraq nearly two decades ago.Hussein said he had not been shy about arguing with Saddam, whom he had been allowed to see in response to a plea he presented to local authorities in his village.Speaking in Kurdish through an Arabic translator, Hussein said Saddam told him, “Shut up.Don’t talk anymore.Get out of here.””I saluted him, saying, ‘Yes, sir.’ And I left.I consoled myself, thinking that Saddam may feel sorry for me and set my family free.I was very sad.But I really hoped he would release them,” he said.Saddam sat silently, looking at the witness.At one point, he asked the chief judge for a pen and paper to take notes.Hussein, a Kurd, had no family relation to Saddam, a Sunni Muslim Arab.The witness said that only two years ago, local authorities in his village told him they found the remains of three of his relatives in a mass grave.He said the whereabouts of the rest of them was unknown.He also demanded “financial and moral” compensation for his loss.He told the court that he wished to “lodge a complaint” against Saddam and his cousin and co-defendant, “Chemical” Ali al-Majid.Nampa-AP