AMMAN, Jordan, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for Dec. 27:
Arab newspapers commented Wednesday on an Iraqi higher court's endorsement of the death penalty against toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and two of his aides for killing 148 people in the Shiite town of Dujail following a foiled assassination attempt against Saddam in the 1980s. The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi said the endorsement was expected, adding the issue was no longer related to the legitimacy of the court or whether the case was legal or political, but is related to the legitimacy of the occupation, the institutions that emerged under it and the drastic result that befell the country. The independent Palestinian-owned daily added in a front-page commentary that Saddam might be executed by hanging in the next few weeks after the judiciary rejected his request to be executed by gunfire. "But he will go to the gallows with his head held high because he built a strong, united and non-sectarian Iraq that had its regional and international place," it said, "while his prison guards will hold their heads low in shame because they cannot hide their crimes against Iraq and its people." The paper argued that Saddam did commit massacres and violate human rights, but what the "Iraqi democrats" are doing now to the critics is much worse. It called on the ruling Iraqi politicians to apologize to the Iraqi people and the Arabs for having destroyed their country and to form courts to try those responsible for killing 665,000 Iraqis since the collapse of Saddam's regime. "We demand they be tried on charges of igniting a civil sectarian war, exercising the ugliest forms of genocide, stealing public funds and collaborating with foreigners against their country and people," the paper insisted. "And we doubt their punishment should be less than death by hanging."
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Another London-based Arabic daily, al-Hayat, said the fate of Saddam Hussein as a person is not important, since he always expected death awaits him. "It is impossible to defend Saddam Hussein," the Saudi-financed daily said in a commentary, "for his violations were blatant. He was a brutal dictator." It added, however, it had hoped that he would have been tried in an Iraq that lives in a democracy and rule of law, and for his trial to have been proof of a victory of justice and an end of tyranny. "Saddam was bad, but we need to say that Iraq lives under a reality that is worse than Saddam," the daily said. It insisted the execution of Iraq as a country is a worse crime than Saddam's execution of his opponents during his reign. "Worse than Saddam is dismantling his regime and opening the doors to the unknown, in dismantling the Iraqi army...and forming death squads to assassinate innocents according to their (sectarian) identity," it stressed. Worse than Saddam, it went on to say, are those who allow the killing of Iraqis and Iraqi politicians who execute external agendas at the expense of their own country. It predicted that many people were awaiting the celebration of Saddam's death to take revenge for their loved ones. "But the scene will multiply the pain as Saddam's corpse will enflame sentiments and consolidate the plan to eradicate Iraq," it said, adding that those who are happy to see Iraq as it is today will in the future "cry over Saddam."
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Saudi Arabia's al-Riyadh commented in its editorial that a new stream of blood is now flowing in Somalia as fighting erupts between Islamic courts and the provisional government, while Ethiopia is interfering militarily to prevent the emergence of an Islamic neighbor. The semi-official daily complained of a general Arab, Islamic and international silence over the events in Somalia because there are those who don't want to see the Islamic courts rise to power or support the Ethiopian invasion. It said an isolated Somalia had fought many battles and millions of people have become refugees, "but now it stands at a crossroads after the world allowed the fighting, leading to the emergence of the (Islamic) courts' militias and gave birth to another Taliban." It asked whether Ethiopia's intervention is a start to international interference similar to what is happening in many turbulent areas such as Serbia, Sudan and Iraq. "Why is the Arab nation alone involved in modern wars? Have we become the new banana republics, volunteering for external roles and conspiring to take power according to sect or minority, drawing up scenarios for us to eradicate our identity?" it asked.
