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| Sunday, 4 July 2004 |
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Saddam insists he still represents true patriotic Iraq BAGHDAD, July 3 (AFP) Deposed strongman Saddam Hussein told a special tribunal judge Thursday that he remained the true embodiment of Iraqi legitimacy in his first discourse since being ousted by the US-led coalition in April last year. A haggard, leaner and older Saddam defiantly reminded the judge, whose name was withheld for security reasons, that he was still president of Iraq. "Saddam Hussein the president of the Republic of Iraq," answered Saddam, when the judge asked him his name. "Your full name?" asked the judge. "Saddam Hussein al-Majid," Saddam replied. The judge repeated that to the court reporter but Saddam insisted on adding the title: "President of the Republic of Iraq." Later, the judge instructed the court to put "former president" in brackets after Saddam's name. But Saddam cut in with a curt: "Still." The fallen leader later elaborated that he was insisting on his title not out of love for it but out of "respect for the people's will." Asked to give his address, Saddam insisted: "Every Iraqi home is my residence." Wearing a grey pin-striped jacket and a tieless white shirt, he sat behind a wooden enclosure facing the young, moustached judge who wore black robes trimmed with white lace. The former dictator, whose very name was a source of fear for Iraqis for more than three decades, was now reasoning with a judge appointed under his regime. But Saddam's bravura performance shone in his ability to manipulate, lecture and even patronise the judge about the meaning of being a true Iraqi. The captive strongman was in full swing just three minutes into his court appearance. "You must introduce yourself to me," he demanded. The judge told Saddam that he was "the investigating judge of the central Iraqi court." Saddam then seized on the chance to take over the show, asking the judge to repeat his title again slowly before abruptly following up with a challenge to the legitiamcy of the court. "It was created according to what decree?" he asked. "It was created by a decision ... the coalition authorities took this decision," the judge replied. Saddam stared the magistrate in the face and fired the rhetorical question: "Coalition authorities?" in a disbelieving tone. The judge answered with a simple "yes." "This means then that you are an Iraqi representing the forces occupying your country," Saddam retorted. "I am an Iraqi representing Iraq," fired back the judge. "I was appointed according to a presidential decree issued under the previous regime." After some haggling, Saddam said: "So you should not work according to a decision issued by forces you call the coalition authorities, these are forces of invasion." He started rubbing his eyebrows and fiddling with his salt-and-pepper beard as the judge explained to him the judicial process, before interjecting: "Excuse me please ... I do not want to complicate matters." The judge accommodated him and Saddam began to lecture the court about the true meaning of justice. "For us, justice is represented by our eternal heritage emanating from the holy Koran and then from Prophet Mohammed's sharia (religious laws)," said Saddam in a fatherly tone to the judge's acknowledgement. The former dictator's mood became angry and quarrelsome in the second part of his court appearance when the judge read out the seven charges against him, including the 1990 invasion of Kuwait which sparked the 1991 Gulf war. His eyes welled up as he told the judge that he could not believe that a fellow Iraqi would bring such a charge. "You are Iraqi and everyone knows that Kuwait is part of Iraq," he insisted. |
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