Iraqi Shia Uprising Trial Begins
21 August 2007 (Aljazeera)
The trial of 15 aides to Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president, over their alleged role in the suppression of a Shia uprising in 1991, has opened in Baghdad.
Among those being tried is Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam’s cousin, who has already been sentenced to death having been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
The trial opened on Tuesday, and is the third to be held by the Iraqi High Tribunal, an Iraqi court set up with US assistance to examine crimes committed by Saddam’s government.
Prosecutors will argue that tens of thousands of Shia were killed when armed forces put down an uprising in southern Iraq by deserting soldiers retreating from their defeat in Kuwait in the first Gulf war.
Shia fighters and civilians were killed near the cities of Najaf and Karbala and in the Hilla and Basra regions, after the US-led coalition had decided to halt its offensive inside Iraq.
Saddam’s forces used helicopter gunships and tanks to defeat the rebels, and it is estimated that between 60,000 and 100,000 people were killed.
This happened after US generals relaxed no-fly rules in the area.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraqi and international experts have exhumed dozens of mass graves of those killed in the uprising, and their reports are expected to be the key evidence during the trial.
Officials have said that approximately 90 victims and witnesses are expected to testify against the 15 defendants.
Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera’s Iraq correspondent, said that the trial is unlikely to capture the public’s attention given the many problems Iraqis currently face.
“Right now, the priority for people is completely different,” she said.
“Whether its in the south or central of their country there are too many problems. People say they are on survival mode.
“People say there are problems that need dealing with now rather than putting on trial what happened in the past.”
Long list
Sultan Hashim al-Tai, a former defence minister, and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, an ex-armed forces deputy chief of operations, were sentenced to death in an earlier genocide trial but are among those accused.
A nine-member appeal court is currently reviewing the death sentences given to al-Majid, al-Tai and al-Tikriti for a 1988 gas attack that killed thousands of Kurds in the village of Halabja.
If the sentence is upheld, the three will have to be executed within 30 days, according to Iraqi law.
In such a case, all charges against them in connection with the Shia uprising would be dropped. Iraq Updates