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Kurds call for revenge as Saddam faces his judges http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=COL144650
Mon 21 Aug 2006
By Ibon Villelabeitia
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The clicking backgammon dice fell silent in the crowded cafe as the television broadcast images of Saddam Hussein facing his judges.
"Today is a great day for the survivors. Saddam's day of judgment has finally come," said 52-year-old Jamal Said, a survivor of the "Anfal" campaign, in which tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds were killed in a military onslaught in 1988.
The trial of Saddam and six of his former army commanders on charges of crimes against humanity opened on Monday in a Baghdad courtroom. Saddam and his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", face the additional charge of genocide.
Many Kurds, whose northern region is still haunted by the seven-month Anfal operation, said they had little patience for what was likely to be a long trial and wanted the toppled leader sent to the gallows right away.
"Saddam doesn't deserve a trial. The world knows what he did. This trial is a waste of time and only gives him a chance to say what he wants. He should be hanged now," said Hassan Karam, 51, who was tortured by Saddam's intelligence agents.
"I was left disabled with seven children. I can't work," he said, showing his left hand, which has three fingers missing, severed by his torturers. "All I can do now is come to this cafe and play backgammon," he said.
Azad Mirzia, a 46-year-old bus driver, said Kurds should be given a last chance to see Saddam in the flesh.
"I am very happy he is being tried, but first they should put him in a cage and drive him around the villages of Kurdistan as if he was a monkey."
POISON GAS
During the Anfal campaign, poison gas was used to drive villagers from their homes. About 4,500 villages were destroyed in a campaign that Kurdish leaders say was aimed at wiping out the Kurds, a non-Arab people.
Grapes ripen on the fertile village slopes once sprayed with gas by Saddam's planes and the mountain wind carries the sound of donkeys braying, but the region has deep emotional scars. Shell casings litter villages and cemeteries have graves holding the remains of babies killed by the gas.
In Sargalo, a tiny village nestled among soaring peaks near Sulaimaniya, 54-year-old Majid Mohammed said he trekked through deep snow with his family for three days fleeing Saddam's soldiers in February 1988 until they reached neighbouring Iran.
"My two-year-old son died in my wife's hands. He died because of the chemicals and the cold. Those who lived through Anfal can never forget. We owe it to our dead."
At the cafe in Sulaimaniya, customers returned to their backgammon game after watching the trial for 15 minutes. Saddam refused to enter a plea, provoking general indignation.
The sound of dice clicking on worn wooden tables filled the cafe as waiters busied themselves serving mint tea.
Karam threw the dice with his good hand while he played with a string of beads with the two fingers left on his other hand.
"Life has to go on. We can't be stuck in Anfal forever."
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