Iraq's president Saddam Hussein hanged this morning
Iraq's former president Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad today morning. An Iraqi appeals court upheld the verdict and death sentence on Tuesday.
Saddam was found guilty on November 5 in the killing, torture and other crimes against the Muslim population of the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in 1982.
Saddam and his two co-accused -- his half brother and intelligence chief Barzan Hassan al-Tikriti and revolutionary court judge Awad Ahmed al-Bandar -- were convicted of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court on November 5.
The two aids were to be hanged along with Saddam but their execution was postponed.
Iraqis in Sadr City, Baghdad, said to be mostly Shiite, who were oppressed under Hussein, took to streets some of them danced while others fired guns in the air to celebrate Saddam's death.
The government did not impose curfew as it did last month when Saddam was convicted to thwart any surge in retaliatory violence.
More than 2,000 people, many carrying weapons, demonstrated in Adwar, a village south of Tikrit where Saddam was captured hiding in an underground bunker.
It is also the hometown of Saddam's former No. 2, Izzat Ibrahim, who is still at large.
Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were not hanged along with their former leader as originally planned.
The Iraqi prime minister's office released a statement that said Saddam's execution was a "strong lesson" to ruthless leaders who commit crimes against their own people.
"We strongly reject considering Saddam as a representative of any sect in Iraq because the tyrant only represented his evil soul," the statement said.
"The door is still open for those whose hands are not tainted with the blood of innocent people to take part in the political process and work on rebuilding Iraq."
Kurdish-language satellite televisions today broadcast the Iraqi Kurds' jubilation over the execution of former dictator Saddam Hussein. Kurds are said to have suffered much under Hussein's rule.
Saddam Hussein was hanged at dawn today for crimes against humanity -- an end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled in 2003. The channels extended their congratulations on Saddam's death in live interviews with the Kurds in Iraq.
The Television stations showed footage of Saddam being led to the gallows and a noose being placed around his neck.
The noose was put around his neck by two hooded hangmen but the footage did not show the actual moment of the hanging or pictures of his body.
The crawl on their live programs reported the celebration among Iraqi Kurds for the execution of Saddam.
Saddam's execution day is a great event for Iraqi nation, Representative of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Nazem Dabbagh said.
"The bad end is the fate of all the dictators," the Iraqi political activist said.
"I felicitate Saddam's death to all the regional nations too, because none of them would have remained safe from his evil," Dabbagh said.
He said Saddam deserved to be put to death for numerous human crimes adding that the court hearings should have continued in order to clarify dimensions of his crimes against humanity during over two decades of his rule.
"With Saddam's death, the bells tolled for those attempting to drive the Middle East to turbulence and instability," the Iraqi representative said.
"Though Saddam's execution was carried hastily, but, it is a positive step to teach the tyrants a lesson that they would not escape justice in case of committing crime." Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned the nation against any move by the Baathists and stressed that execution of Saddam is the end of individual dictatorship in Iraq.
In a statement issued hours after Saddam was executed in Baghdad at dawn, al-Maliki said Saddam ruled the country for a long period of time through conspiracy and mischief.
"I urge followers of the ousted regime to reconsider their stance as the door is still open to anyone whose hands are not stained with blood of innocent people, to help in rebuilding an Iraq for all Iraqis," he said.
"The policies of discrimination and exclusion that Iraqis suffered for 35 years are over, as well as the wars and irresponsible adventures that spilled the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and pushed Iraq back by decades." The execution of Saddam is the end of any chance for the return of dictatorship and the one party system. The execution of Saddam gives a lesson to all despotic rulers who commit crimes against their people, he reiterated in his statement.
The government of national reconciliation is determined to continue its efforts for reconstruction in all fields, he said, adding that doors are opened to all those wishing to serve their people and their homeland.
In neighboring Kuwait, invaded by Iraq under Hussein's rule, a number of Kuwaitis reportedly placed hand notes on their car panes to congratulate their compatriots, especially families of Kuwaiti prisoners of war, whose remains were unearthed in mass graves in Iraq, on the occasion.
"Kuwaiti people will never forget the auspicious feast of Qurban this year when Iraq's idol was executed," said a 26-year-old resident of Kuwait's Salemiah district, Fahd al-Atiqi, as he distributed candies over Saddam's capital punishment.
Al-Atiqi said Kuwaitis well remember occupation of their country by Saddam's army in 1990 and the brutal crimes of Iraq's deposed president in the period and they have been counting down for such a sweet day for years.
A Kuwait merchant Ahmad al-Motairi, on his shop's window in Kuwait's Mobarakieh market wrote "We congratulate Saddam's execution.
The tyrant Saddam had no mercy on anybody, even on the closest members of his family, i.e. his brother-in-law and sons-in-law, and killed them." Kuwaitis cheered by distributing candies and pastries and congratulating each other on the happy occasion.
A number of Kuwaitis reportedly placed hand notes on their car panes to congratulate their compatriots, especially families of Kuwaiti prisoners of war, whose remains were unearthed in mass graves in Iraq, on the occasion.
"Kuwaiti people will never forget the auspicious feast of Qurban this year when Iraq's idol was executed," said a 26-year-old resident of Kuwait's Salemiah district, Fahd al-Atiqi, as he distributed candies over Saddam's capital punishment.
Al-Atiqi said Kuwaitis well remember occupation of their country by Saddam's army in 1990 and the brutal crimes of Iraq's deposed president in the period and they have been counting down for such a sweet day for years.
A Kuwait merchant Ahmad al-Motairi, on his shop's window in Kuwait's Mobarakieh market wrote "We congratulate Saddam's execution.
The tyrant Saddam had no mercy on anybody, even on the closest members of his family, i.e. his brother-in-law and sons-in-law, and killed them." He called December 30, 2006, as a "historical day for Iraqi and regional nations, including Kuwaitis and Iranians." He hoped that with capital punishment of Saddam Iraqis would through their unity open a new page in their life and strive for restoration of security and stability in their country.
"The executed dictator of Iraq killed hundreds of Iraqis by his ambitions and ordered digging of mass graves in any part of the country," said a student of Kuwait University Robab al-Shemri happily upon hearing Saddam's death.
Kuwaiti worshipers too on Saturday distributed candies and pastries at Kuwaiti mosques and congratulated each other on death of the ousted Iraqi dictator.
In neighboring Iran, attacked by Iraq under Hussein's rule, Iran Deputy Foreign Minister for Parliamentary and Consular Affairs Hamid-Reza Asefi said today that execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was equal to the victory of the Iraqi people as they had been the winners of his fall.
Asefi made the remark while commenting on the execution of the former Iraqi dictator who was hanged in Baghdad Saturday morning.
"Saddam's regime was overthrown because the Iraqi people did not support him. It is crystal clear that the US (administration) should not misinterpret his fall and take the credit to itself.
"No one should be accountable for Saddam's execution," he told IRNA.
Pointing to crimes committed by the former Iraqi president in domestic and international dimensions, Asefi added, "War on Iran led to a split in the Islamic world and of serious problems with respect to unity among Muslims." He said the Iraqi war on Kuwait dealt another blow on the Arab world and further deepened discord in the Arab world, adding, "The war weakened the Arab front.
"When the Arab and Islamic fronts were weakened, the Zionist regime took the most advantage (of the situation). This left the Palestinians in the worst situation, aggravating their condition and intensifying their difficulties.
"On internal affairs, Saddam put massacre of Shi'ites on his agenda. In a broader dimension, he masterminded plans for killing Kurds and sowing discord between Shi'ites and Sunnis." In response to a question on insecurity in Iraq, Asefi said, "Insecurity in Iraq is the aftermath of evil policies of Saddam which have been implemented under the US recommendation.
"The US was the main motive behind Saddam's crimes." He stated that Saddam's trial merely dealt with one of his crimes, that is crimes against the Muslim population of the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in 1982.
"Saddam's case was closed soon. If the cases of wars on Iran and Kuwait had been also examined, the US alliance and role would have been disclosed.
"So, Washington tried to end the case with the investigation into Saddam's crimes in Dujail." Asked about insecurity in Iraq after Saddam's execution, he said, "Arrest of Saddam escalated insecurity. It is predictable that his execution will cause more insecurity for a short period of time." In Britain, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Saddam has been "held to account for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people." In Australia Prime Minister John Howard said the execution was significant because Iraqis had given the brutal dictator a fair trial.
"I believe... a country (Iraq) yet still extends due process to somebody who was a tyrant and brutal oppressor and murderer of his people," Howard told reporters.
"That is the mark of a country that is trying against fearful odds to embrace democracy," he said.
Fauzan Al Anshori, from the Majelis Mujahidin of Indonesia, said the US President George W. Bush, too, should stand trial.
"Given the crime blamed on Saddam, it would not be fair if George Bush is not tried at an international tribunal," he said.
"Saddam was executed for killing of 148 people, Shiite Muslims, while Bush is responsible for the killing of about 600,000 Iraqis since the March 2003 invasion." "Saddam is paying the price for murdering tens of thousands of Iraqis. This is an unprecedented feeling of happiness.... Nothing matches it, no festival or marriage or birth," said Abu Sinan, a resident of Sadr City, a place where Baghdad's Shiites reside.
"Saddam Hussein was a brutal tyrant and murderous dictator. Now it is time for the people of Iraq to work to patch up their differences and to heal the wounds of the past. Only the process will end the violence that has prevented Iraq from moving forward," according to US Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
"What I think is important about this is to recognize that this trial of Saddam has been handled by the Iraqis themselves.... It does give us a very clear reminder of the total and barbaric brutality of that regime," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"It will not increase our moral authority in the world....
Saddam's heinous crimes against humanity can never be diminished, but he was our ally while he was doing it.... Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth will make us blind and disfigured.... Saddam as a war trophy only deepens the catastrophe to which we are indelibly linked," maintained the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The trial and execution of Saddam Hussein are testament to the determination of the Iraqi people to establish a nation governed by the rule of law, President Bush said in a statement from his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
"Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial -- the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime," Bush said, noting that fair and open trials were "unimaginable" under his regime. “We are reminded today of how far the Iraqi people have come since the end of Saddam Hussein's rule,” the president said.
"Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq," Bush said, "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."
The senior United Nations Special Representative Ashraf Qazi voiced understanding about the desire for justice among many people but reiterated the world body's longstanding opposition to capital punishment, saying "Based on the principle of respect for the right to life, however, the United Nations remains opposed to capital punishment, even in the case of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide."