Webloggin » Justice Met, Iraqi’s Celebrate As Saddam Is Sentenced To Hang

Finally we get to see major American newspapers cover good news out of Iraq. I suppose there will be some who will try and frame this as an issue of Saddam’s crimes from before this current war but Iraqis know that this is just a verdict on one set of crimes that covers a quarter century.

BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 - An Iraqi special tribunal today convicted Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death by hanging for the brutal repression of a Shiite town in the 1980s.

As the verdict was read, Mr. Hussein shouted, “Long live the people! Long live the Arab nation! Down with the spies!” He then chanted “God is great.” The chief judge, Raouf Rasheed Abdul Rahman, tried to calm Mr. Hussein down. “There’s no point,” Mr. Rahman said.

The five-judge panel, which heard more than nine months of testimony in the case, also issued death sentences for two of his seven co-defendants: Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Mr. Hussein’s half-brother, who was head of Iraq’s domestic intelligence agency; and Awad al-Bandar, president of Mr. Hussein’s revolutionary court. - NY Times

Even the New York Times had to cover the celebration.

Spontaneous celebrations broke out across Iraq in spite of an around-the-clock curfew imposed on the capital and other regions. Pistols and assault rifles were fired into the air across the capital and elsewhere in a common gesture of celebration. People flooded the streets of Sadr City, a Shiite bastion of Baghdad, whooping and dancing and sounding car horns. Even some Shiite police officers joined in the celebratory gunfire.

“I feel happy,” said a 31-year-old Shiite shop owner, who was smoking apple-flavored tobacco on the sidewalk in Karrada, an upscale neighborhood in central Baghdad. “I think he got his punishment. There was no Iraqi house that didn’t have damage because of Saddam Hussein.” Men and boys played soccer in the streets of the neighborhood, which was largely tranquil.

Of course that celebratory response can not be met without a warning that some will reject the response.

But in some predominantly Sunni Arab areas, the mood was one of anger and resentment. Immediately following the verdicts, fighting broke out between gunmen and the Iraqi Army in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya in northeastern Baghdad, according to an Interior Ministry official. American forces swarmed the district, however, suppressing the violence, the official reported.

Fighting also erupted between supporters of Mr. Hussein and American troops near Bayji, north of Tikrit, Mr. Hussein’s birthplace and a bastion of support for the Sunni-led insurgency, according to witnesses there.

Iraqi and American security forces had been bracing for a violent reaction among Mr. Hussein’s armed supporters, who constitute a significant corps within the insurgency. A ban on cars and pedestrians was imposed in the capital and other areas, Iraq’s security forces were put on high alert and an American fighter plane circled high above the city throughout the day today.

The AP is on the same page.

Some feared the verdicts could exacerbate the sectarian violence that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war, after a trial that stretched over nine months in 39 sessions and ended nearly 3 1/2 months ago. Clashes immediately began Sunday in north Baghdad’s heavily Sunni Azamiyah district. Elsewhere in the capital, celebratory gunfire rang out.

“This government will be responsible for the consequences, with the deaths of hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands, whose blood will be shed,” Salih al-Mutlaq, a Sunni political leader, told the Al-Arabiya satellite television station.

Expect these two arguments to be the reaction by the left, old crimes, not everyone is happy. CNN is playing the “this will spike violence higher meme” right now.

Update to include exact numbers: Keep in mind that this particular genocide trial only covered the genocide of ethnic Kurds in the late 80’s. This trial only covered a small sliver of the crimes perpetrated by Hussein; 148 people out of a up to 100,000 in the Anfal campaign that included chemical attacks and between 1 and 2 million people killed in total under his tyrannical rule.

Correction: The number of estimated deaths under Saddam Hussein is between 1 and 2 million death; Anfal death estimates were reflected upwards. The article has been changed to reflect these facts. Official numbers do not take into account the number of people who died while the Saddam regime withheld assistance that was being provided under the oil for food program. Links have been provided for reference.

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