Special report: Trial of Saddam Hussein
BAGHDAD,
Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi former president Saddam Hussein's genocide trial
against the Kurds in 1980s resumed on Wednesday during which Kurdish witnesses
told the court how they survived a massacre by Saddam's death squad.
Wearing black suit and holding Quran, the holy Muslim
book, Saddam entered the courtroom along with his six aides who believed to be
involved in the Anfal military campaign.
On Wednesday's session, the first eyewitness for a
mass grave for Kurdish people in western Iraq during the Saddam's crackdown on
Kurds insurgency dubbed the Operation Anfal (Spoils of War),took the stand on
condition of anonymity.
The witness, who gave the testimony behind a curtain
for personal security reason, described how he and other Kurdish people were
driven through unpaved roads to Iraq's western desert.
"We heard screaming and gunfire but it was far from
us," he said, adding the detainees realized they would be shot dead.
"One of the detainees told us to recite the Shahada
(Muslim declaration of faith) and ask for forgiveness as we are going to die in
few minutes," he said.
The witness said he tried to run away and fell into a
ditch full of bodies after he and three other detainees attack the guards who
would approach with their weapons, saying that on his way to flee the site, he
saw many ditches full of bodies in the desert.
The witness made his complaints against Saddam, Ali
Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali" and all other defendants.
A second Kurdish witness, also speaking anonymously
from behind a screen, recalled that Iraqi soldiers took detainees, including
himself, to the desert and attempted to execute them.
"They put us, altogether 34 persons, in vehicles. We
had thought they would take us back home, but they took us to the south and we
were blindfolded," the witness said.
"We didn't know where exactly we were taking to until
our vehicles arrived at an area where we could heard the shovels burying bodies
who were executed before," he said.
The witness was wounded and several other detainees
were killed when they attacked the guards who opened fire on them.
"After cease-fire I ran for twenty minutes until I
reached a camp," he said, adding that the people there gave him food and
medicine before he left after three days.
The second witness made complaints against Saddam,
Ali Hassan and all those who involved in the Anfal operation, he also demanded
for compensation.
After hearing two witnesses, the Chief Judge Muhammed
Ureiby announced that the court adjourned until Thursday, on Oct. 19.
Saddam and his codefendants face charge of genocide
for their role in Anfal military campaign against Iraq's Kurds in the 1980s,
which the chief prosecutor said left some 182,000 people dead or missing.
All the main charges in Anfal carry death penalty.
Saddam is also awaiting a possible death sentence
verdict for a separate case involving killing of some 148 Shiites.
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