Now, United Nations urges mercy for Saddam aides

United Nations does not want Iraq to execute Saddam aides

BAGHDAD: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour urged Iraq on Wednesday not to execute two of Saddam Hussein’s aides out of respect for international law and concerns over the fairness and impartiality of the trial. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson said he fully endorsed Arbour’s statement.

Iraq has not set an execution date for the two, as the government faced anger from Sunnis over Saddam’s unruly hanging. There had been reports that Saddam’s half-brother, former intelligence boss Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander, would hang on Thursday. But an aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said no date had been set.

Barzan and Bander were found guilty along with Saddam of crimes against humanity in the killings of 148 Shi’ite men from Dujail in the 1980s.   

Bahaa al-Araji, a lawmaker for radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s political group, said he believed the executions would be delayed until Sunday, the first working day after the weekend and the Eid al-Adha holiday.   

“As far as I know, the executions will take place on Sunday, if things stand as they are,” al-Araji said. “I’m not sure about what time, but I doubt it will be in the same place.”

Facing growing criticism over a video of Shi’ite officials mocking Saddam on the gallows, which has hardened perceptions of Shi’ite triumphalism among Sunni Arabs and discomfited the United States, officials said a number of guards had been detained as part of a government probe into who filmed and leaked the video.   

Thousands of Sunni Arabs have marched to vent anger at the execution, and mourners have flocked to his grave in his home village of Awja. Although the Interior Ministry’s investigation has so far centred on the guards, it could implicate senior government officials present at the execution, dealing a further blow to Maliki’s calls for national reconciliation.   

The US military, which said it played no role in the hanging and would have done things “differently”, urged Maliki in unusually direct advice to reach out to disillusioned Sunnis. US Major General William Caldwell said there had been a lull in violence over the Eid al-Adha holiday, but that US forces were still braced for a possible backlash.

On Thursday, two bombs exploded near a petrol station in Baghdad’s western Mansour district, killing at least 13 people and wounding 25, police said.   

As US President George W Bush weighs alternatives for a war in which more than 3,000 US soldiers have died, there were signs he is considering a short-term troop increase in Iraq. Such a “surge” is one of many changes under consideration, but is the one that has gained most attention in Washington.