'Chemical Ali' takes Saddam's hot seat in Iraq trial

BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein's cousin 'Chemical Ali' moved centre stage in Iraq's genocide trial on Thursday, occupying the executed dictator's chair in court and confessing that he ordered thousands of Kurds to be forced out of their homes.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, who faces the gallows if found guilty of slaughtering 182,000 Kurdish villagers in the 1980s, spoke from the dock with subdued calm, in stark contrast to angry tirades delivered by Saddam prior to his death.

"I'm resposible for the displacement and I took this desicion alone without going back to the high military command or Baath party commander. I say that before your court and before God," Majid said.

But the former head of Iraq's northern command, who owes his chilling nickname to accusations that he gassed thousands of Kurdish civilians, denied he was responsible for executing 300 Kurdish fighters.

Instead he said that he had written a note to Saddam, "Martyr, mercy on his soul," who pardoned them.

In various audio recordings played by the prosecutor, his voice could be heard branding all Kurds saboteurs and claiming to have received a letter from current Iraqi president and veteran Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani.

The letter, according to the voice, asked for talks and mooted concessions in exchange for a halt to government demolishions of Kurdish villages.

Thursday's proceedings took place with Majid and all five co-defendants present in the high security Baghdad court, which convened for a second time since Saddam's hanging before adjourning until January 23.

Although defendants previously refused to occupy Saddam's former seat at the front of the dock, his cousin and one-time defence minister took the hot seat.

The court readjusted the seats, lining them up in three rows with Majid and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, former deputy chief of operations in the armed forces, in the front of the dock.

On Monday, the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad dropped its charges against Saddam after he went to the gallows on December 30, executed for crimes against humanity for the deaths of 148 Shiite villagers in 1982 in revenge for a failed attempt on his life.

The ongoing genocide case centres on the killing of 182,000 Kurdish villagers during the so-called Anfal campaign between 1987 and 1988.

The six remaining defendants have been charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, which carries the death penalty, and with meticulously carrying out military attacks against the Kurds, some using chemical weapons.

The accused say the campaign was a vital counter-insurgency operation against Kurdish guerrillas who sided with the enemy during Iraq's devastating 1980-88 war with Iran.