[R-P] Saddam Hussein: "¡Iraq, únete y lucha contra el invasor!"

[Nestor Gorojovsky]

Gentileza de la lista Marxmail.  

[Traducción parcial de Néstor Gorojovsky, para la lista Reconquista-
Popular.  Texto completo en inglés, al pie.]

New York Times, 16 de marzo de 2006

Hussein convoca a los iraquíes a unirse en una guerra contra EEUU

Por  EDWARD WONG

BAGDAD, Iraq, Marzo 15 - El miércoles, Saddam Hussein se sentó por 
primera vez en el banquillo de los testigos, para su primer 
declaración formal en el juicio que se le prosigue.  Lanzó una 
diatriba política incendiaria, urgiendo a los iraquíes a detener el 
derramamiento de sangre por motivos religiosos y a llevar adelante 
una guerra contra los estadounidenses.  El juez a cargo del tribunal 
detuvo la sesión después de que el Sr. Hussein, blandiendo sus 
gruesos anteojos, insultó repetidamente a la corte.


[Original en inglés:]

 
NY Times, March 16, 2006 
Hussein Urges Iraqis to Unify in War on U.S.

By EDWARD WONG

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 15 - Saddam Hussein took the witness stand on 
Wednesday for his first formal testimony in his trial and delivered 
an incendiary political diatribe that urged Iraqis to stop sectarian 
bloodshed and to carry on the war against the Americans. The 
presiding judge halted the session after Mr. Hussein, brandishing 
thick reading glasses, repeatedly lambasted the court.

 Mr. Hussein's nearly 40-minute speech was the most riveting element 
so far in a trial that has already been punctuated by tirades from 
the defendants and searing testimony from victims. Mr. Hussein 
marched up to the defendants' lectern in the midafternoon, after his 
half brother had spent three hours proclaiming their innocence, and 
read from a yellow notepad.

 He had delivered outbursts before, but his sense of decorum and calm 
manner on Wednesday showed he was keenly aware that this afternoon, 
at this hour, the spotlight was reserved for him. He was better 
dressed than in previous sessions, draped in a black suit and 
charcoal-gray vest with a white shirt.

His hair was combed and parted.

 He went on to do exactly what Iraqi and American officials had long 
feared he might - use the session, televised across the Middle East, 
to try to incite the Sunni-led insurgency to further violence.

 "You've been great throughout history and you've been great in your 
resistance to the American and Zionist invasion and its followers," 
he said in a firm voice, after calling on Iraqis to stop the 
sectarian violence.

"You've been great in my eyes."

"You're defending your country against the occupation," he continued. 
"I want you to stick to your virtues, your faith and your patience."

In sharp rejoinders, Mr. Hussein demonstrated a command of recent 
events in Iraq. Told by the judge that he was accused of killing 
innocent people, Mr.

Hussein pointed to the scores of bodies found this week, the victims 
of sectarian killings. "Just yesterday, 80 bodies of Iraqis were 
discovered in Baghdad," he said. "Aren't they innocent?"

Not once did Mr. Hussein address the case at hand, in which he and 
seven co-defendants are charged with jailing, torturing and executing 
148 men and boys from the Shiite village of Dujail in the 1980's. The 
expression on the face of the presiding judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, 
turned from bemusement to fatigue to fury. After a few heated 
exchanges, and after cutting off the sound at least nine times, the 
judge barred reporters from the court for more than 90 minutes, 
allowing them to return only after Mr. Hussein had finished speaking.

 Mr. Hussein was the last of the defendants to testify, marking the 
mid-way point of the trial. Judge Abdel-Rahman adjourned the court 
until April 5, when Mr. Hussein may return for cross-examination. The 
three-judge panel will then decide what formal charges to bring 
against each defendant, while lawyers for both sides prepare for 
further arguments. American officials say the trial will continue 
until at least late May. Even before Dujail ends, investigative 
judges are expected to refer the next case against Mr.

Hussein for trial. It covers what is known as the Anfal campaign, in 
which Mr. Hussein's government razed villages across Iraqi Kurdistan 
in the 1980's and killed about 80,000 Kurds.

 Since October, when the Dujail trial opened, Iraqi and American 
officials have struggled to establish the legitimacy of the Iraqi 
High Tribunal in the eyes of international observers and ordinary 
Iraqis. Even before the first session, the court was plagued by the 
assassinations of a judge and defense lawyers; political machinations 
aimed at purging judges; and attempts by the Iraqi government to 
shape the trial. During the trial, the court has had to contend with 
disorderly defendants, ambiguous witness testimony and a reshuffling 
of judges, after the first presiding judge resigned over criticism 
that he was too lenient.

 American and Iraqi officials have insisted that the trial be held in 
this country, in defiance of a growing chorus of human rights 
advocates and foreign observers who urge that it be moved to an 
international venue. In any case, those critics would be difficult to 
win over, because most of them oppose the death penalty, which is 
expected to be levied against Mr.

Hussein and his top aides.

 The trial took a serious turn on Feb. 28, when the lead prosecutor 
presented documents that, he argued, showed Mr. Hussein's signature 
on execution orders of the 148 victims, who were rounded up in Dujail 
after a failed assassination attempt on Mr. Hussein there in 1982. 
But Mr.

Hussein's fiery speech on Wednesday threatened to plunge the trial 
back into the circuslike atmosphere that has dogged it.

 Though Iraqis huddle around television sets during each court 
session, there are few in this country who have not already made up 
their minds about Mr. Hussein. His supporters, mostly Sunni Arabs, 
have been bolstered by his display of defiance. His detractors say 
that same defiance shows Mr.

Hussein is unrepentant, and should have been marched to his death 
immediately.

 "This is a farce," said Akil Mutar, 24, a worker in a cramped 
foodstuffs shop downtown. "A man like Saddam shouldn't be submitted 
to the court, but should instead be executed even without being 
questioned. Saddam, through his speech, thinks and talks as if he's 
still the president."

Judge Abdel-Rahman, though firm in previous sessions, appeared to 
stumble a bit on Wednesday on the tightrope he has walked between 
allowing the defendants their right to speak and silencing them when 
they grandstand.

American and Iraqi officials say they need to find that balance 
because they are anxious to demonstrate that this is not just a show 
trial leading to an inevitable verdict.

 Mr. Hussein's half brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who oversaw 
the intelligence service during the Dujail massacre, strode into 
court before 11 a.m. on Wednesday in a gray robe and red-and-white 
head scarf, a statement in his hand. Six of the eight defendants had 
testified Sunday and Monday. Like the others, Mr. Ibrahim denied any 
wrongdoing and said that, during the Dujail incident, he had 
"released many detainees and shook hands with them."

He justified the trials of those rounded up from Dujail by saying 
they had conspired with Iran to try to assassinate Mr. Hussein.

 Mr. Ibrahim also said that documentary evidence that the prosecution 
had unveiled in earlier sessions had all been forged. Court officials 
have not explained whether or how they are authenticating evidence.

 After a recess, Mr. Hussein glided up to the lectern.

 He spoke of the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in 
Samarra, and how "criminals" and not Iraqis were responsible. "This 
is part of a plan to divide the people instead of carrying out 
jihad," he said, brown-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. "We know 
the resistance against the occupation will organize and go on and on, 
and the government will stumble even if it's supported by the 
occupiers."

Judge Abdel-Rahman interrupted a couple of minutes later.

 "This is rhetoric," he said. "What's its relation to the subject?"

"I am still the president of the state," Mr. Hussein said. "I am 
president."

"You were president of the state," the judge said. "Now you are a 
defendant."

Mr. Hussein responded, "This is what you say and this is according to 
you and your conscience. As for me, I hold my oath in front of my 
people until the people choose someone other than me."

He labeled the Americans "criminals who came under the pretext of 
weapons of mass destruction and the pretext of democracy."

The prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi, shouted a harsh warning to Mr. 
Hussein.

The defense lawyers and Mr. Hussein yelled back.

 The judge pressed a button. Television screens across Iraq went 
silent.

The reporters and cameramen inside the courtroom were asked to leave.

 They were allowed back in for a few final remarks. Later, in the 
hallway, Mr. Mousawi told reporters that during the closed session, 
Mr. Hussein had "gone on saying what he wanted to say."

Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting for this article.

Este correo lo ha enviado
Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
nestorgoro en fibertel.com.ar
[No necesariamente es su autor]
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"La patria tiene que ser la dignidad arriba y el regocijo abajo".
Aparicio Saravia
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