Museum to feature Saddam atrocities

BAGHDAD, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- A museum depicting the atrocities and other crimes committed during the Saddam Hussein era in Iraq is scheduled to open in the Green Zone next year.

The museum will feature maps and galleries from the Anfal campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan. Led by "Chemical" Ali al-Majid, the former Iraqi defense minister, Iraqi forces launched chemical weapons attacks against the Kurdish Peshmerga, as well as civilians, in a campaign that took around 180,000 lives in the late 1980s.

"There is nothing like this in the Middle East," said Judge Areef Abud Raziak, the head of the Iraqi High Tribunal, in an interview with The National newspaper in the United Arab Emirates.

A study room featuring rows of computers will contain evidence from the trials of Saddam Hussein following his capture by U.S. forces Dec. 13, 2003.

The museum also will feature a replica of the "spider hole" the former dictator was discovered in and his possessions at the time, which included a Koran and $750,000 in cash.

"One day people might forget the crimes of Saddam; they might even forget Saddam. We want to make sure that doesn't happen, to give a lesson to the people," Raziak said.

Saddam was executed for war crimes Dec. 30, 2006.