Garp
30-12-2006, 12:05
The deed is done, one less former dictator in the world. A cause for celebration surely? Not really, it would have been better if he'd have been able to see the error of his ways and repented, but they've just ensured that will never happen.
Justice served? Hardly. A Mickey Mouse court operation, a legal defence team stymied at every turn; never allowed to see all the evidence being used against him, a Judge appointed and trained by the US for the explicit purpose of this case who from the very start declared Saddam "Guilty", done in a court set up and controlled by the United States (illegal under the international humanitarian law in the Fourth Geneva Convention); A tribunal who obscured justice at all stages, first declaring no evidence existed from the Dujail trial, and then later allowed the prosecution to use evidence from it whilst simultaneously refusing the defence team access to any of the records; who refused to even tell the defence team the charges being raised against the defendants until the trial had already been going for 8 months.
Justice? Yeah right. The United Nations independent review found it unjust in its final opinion back at the start of September http://international-lawyers.org/Documents/WGAD%20Final%20Decision.pdf and had even told both the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal and the US government that things needed to be improved, and as importantly what needed improved, over a year prior to that.
Light the touch paper and withdraw to a safe distance? We'll be lucky if that distance even exists on this planet. All they've done with this pathetic excuse for Justice is sign the death warrants of many hundreds of innocents, not just in Iraq but across the world, both foreign citizens and their own, and they've sent a clear message to the Iraqis that they cannot look to the law or the occupation government to defend themselves, cannot look to them for fairness, freedom and justice; the self same rights that supposedly form the corner stones of western society. The protests and the violence that we'll see come out from this will likely be unbelievable. How many hundreds of thousands of innocents must die before a country will accept that its actions abroad are causing them?
This whole farce gets me so annoyed. There was no reason for it to be done this way. The coalition had all the opportunity to ensure it got done the right way, 100% visible to the world. A chance to show the world that the coalition forces still stood on the side of justice. Instead they proved themselves to be little better than savage dictators, dispensing their idea of right and wrong with no thought to justice at all.
I don't claim Saddam was innocent, I'm quite confident that he was probably very much guilty of the crimes he got tried for, and many more beyond it; but you can't expect others to grant justice to yourself and a fair legal trial and not allow it to others. Small wonder groups like Amnesty International were protesting about Saddam's trial, the self same group who have campaigned so hard to see him brought to one. http://web.amnesty.org/pages/irq-281206-statement-eng
Justice served? Hardly. A Mickey Mouse court operation, a legal defence team stymied at every turn; never allowed to see all the evidence being used against him, a Judge appointed and trained by the US for the explicit purpose of this case who from the very start declared Saddam "Guilty", done in a court set up and controlled by the United States (illegal under the international humanitarian law in the Fourth Geneva Convention); A tribunal who obscured justice at all stages, first declaring no evidence existed from the Dujail trial, and then later allowed the prosecution to use evidence from it whilst simultaneously refusing the defence team access to any of the records; who refused to even tell the defence team the charges being raised against the defendants until the trial had already been going for 8 months.
Justice? Yeah right. The United Nations independent review found it unjust in its final opinion back at the start of September http://international-lawyers.org/Documents/WGAD%20Final%20Decision.pdf and had even told both the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal and the US government that things needed to be improved, and as importantly what needed improved, over a year prior to that.
Light the touch paper and withdraw to a safe distance? We'll be lucky if that distance even exists on this planet. All they've done with this pathetic excuse for Justice is sign the death warrants of many hundreds of innocents, not just in Iraq but across the world, both foreign citizens and their own, and they've sent a clear message to the Iraqis that they cannot look to the law or the occupation government to defend themselves, cannot look to them for fairness, freedom and justice; the self same rights that supposedly form the corner stones of western society. The protests and the violence that we'll see come out from this will likely be unbelievable. How many hundreds of thousands of innocents must die before a country will accept that its actions abroad are causing them?
This whole farce gets me so annoyed. There was no reason for it to be done this way. The coalition had all the opportunity to ensure it got done the right way, 100% visible to the world. A chance to show the world that the coalition forces still stood on the side of justice. Instead they proved themselves to be little better than savage dictators, dispensing their idea of right and wrong with no thought to justice at all.
I don't claim Saddam was innocent, I'm quite confident that he was probably very much guilty of the crimes he got tried for, and many more beyond it; but you can't expect others to grant justice to yourself and a fair legal trial and not allow it to others. Small wonder groups like Amnesty International were protesting about Saddam's trial, the self same group who have campaigned so hard to see him brought to one. http://web.amnesty.org/pages/irq-281206-statement-eng