| Memnoch |
01-15-2007 07:41 PM |
This time it's Saddam's brother or cousin or someone. Apparently his head was ripped off by the force of the noose.
Quote:
CAIRO (Reuters) - The botched hanging of Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan on Monday aroused Arab suspicions of foul play and malice, deepening the divide between the Iraqi government and Arabs in other countries.
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The noose pulled off Barzan al-Tikriti's head as he fell from the gallows, suggesting that the hangman had misjudged the length of rope needed just to break his neck.
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Government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said there was no "violation of procedure" in the hanging of Barzan and fellow convict Awad Hamed al-Bander, Saddam's former chief judge, for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ites.
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But from Morocco to Yemen, ordinary Arabs cast doubt on the official explanation. Some recalled the chaotic and abusive treatment of Saddam Hussein when he was hanged on December 30.
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Zaid al-Boudani, a shopkeeper in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, said: "I am very sad today, as many other Muslim Arabs are. This execution is part of the revenge campaign going on in Iraq. The way his head was ripped off shows hatred and revenge."
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The president of Morocco's Human Rights Center described the hangings as a barbaric and vengeful act carried out under external pressure, probably from Iran and the United States.
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"We had never heard that the head of a hanged person was ripped from his body, only in this case, which mirrors the hatred and violence," said the president, Khaled Charkaoui.
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Azzam Saleh Abdullah, Barzan's brother-in-law, told Al Jazeera in a telephone call that the Iraqi authorities had not informed the family in advance that the execution was imminent.
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"We heard the news on television and were shocked. The Iraqi government should have informed us. They know the traditions very well," he added.
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"As for ripping off his head, this is the Safavids' rancor. They only came to Iraq to commit revenge and shed Iraqi blood. They did not come for democracy or to build a state. May God curse this democracy," he said.
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'IRAQI BLOOD'
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"Safavid" is a reference to the dynasty which established Shi'ite Islam as the Iranian state religion from the 16th century and which sometimes controlled parts of Iraq.
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Hardline Iraqi Sunnis have started using the term to suggest that the Shi'ites are not true Iraqis.
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Issam Ghazzawi, a Jordanian lawyer who saw Barzan on Friday, said he was convinced the decapitation was deliberate.
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"His head was cut off after he was hanged to mutilate his body in an a barbaric act of revenge that is against any human values and is vigilante justice by a group of thugs," he said.
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At the hanging of Saddam, the executioners shouted sectarian taunts at the former president, who was overthrown and captured after the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
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The Moroccan Human Rights Association, the main independent human rights body in the North African country, said the hangings were a "criminal political assassination."
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"The trial of Saddam Hussein and his aides by a pro-U.S. Iraqi court lacks the conditions for a fair trial and makes the verdicts unjust and their hangings a criminal political assassination masterminded by American imperialism," it said.
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Yemeni bus driver Hassan Mohammad agreed in blaming the U.S. military presence. "Barzan is another victim of the American occupation in Iraq and the way he was executed shows how the Iraqi government is punishing (people) to avenge their rejection of American dominance and occupation," he said.
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But some Arabs in the Gulf, where Saddam was not popular, said they were happy to see Barzan hang.
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Ali al-Baghli, a leading Kuwaiti analyst and a former oil minister, said: "Justice has finally been done! ... (Barzan) committed a lot of crimes against humanity and at least he had undergone a legal trial."
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"This is the rule of law... They deserved what they got. They cannot kill and torture without facing justice," added Mansoor Al-Jamri, editor of the independent Bahraini newspaper Al Wasat.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070115/...raq_arabs_dc_1
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