Saddam Hussein
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A shaken 57-year-old Kurd testified
Thursday that Saddam Hussein aggressively told him to
"shut up" when he pleaded for the release of nine
relatives who disappeared in an offensive on his northern
Iraqi village nearly two decades ago.
"I told Saddam, 'Sir, my family members
were arrested,'" farmer Abdullah Mohammed Hussein
recounted.
"Saddam asked me where, and I told him, 'in my village.'
Saddam said, 'Shut up. Your family is gone in the Anfal,'"
Hussein said, referring to Iraq's 1987-88 campaign to
suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq.
The witness looked anxious Thursday as he sat in a Baghdad
courtroom giving the opening testimony in the fourth court
session this week in the former Iraqi leader's trial on
charges of committing atrocities against Kurds in northern
Iraq nearly two decades ago.
Hussein said he had not been shy about arguing with
Saddam, whom he had been allowed to see in response to a
plea he presented to local authorities in his village.
Speaking in Kurdish through an Arabic translator, Hussein
said Saddam told him, "Shut up. Don't talk anymore. Get
out of here."
"I saluted him, saying, 'Yes, sir.' And I left. I consoled
myself, thinking that Saddam may feel sorry for me and set
my family free. I was very sad. But I really hoped he
would release them," Hussein said.
Saddam sat silently, looking at the witness. At one point,
he asked the chief judge for a pen and paper to take
notes.
Previous witnesses said the remains of relatives who went
missing during Operation Anfal were found in mass graves
several years later. Some recalled how they survived
chemical attacks allegedly carried out by Saddam's regime
against the Kurdish population.
Saddam has accused the Kurdish witnesses of trying to sow
ethnic division in Iraq by alleging chemical attacks and
mass arrests in their villages during a crackdown in the
late 1980s.
On Tuesday, Saddam lashed out against what he called
"agents of Iran and Zionism," and vowed to "crush your
heads" after listening to Kurdish witnesses tell of the
horrors allegedly committed by his fallen regime.
Saddam's actions drew a stern response from the chief
prosecutor, who told the court Wednesday that Saddam was
disrespectful of the witnesses and demanded the chief
judge to step down, accusing him of bias toward the
defendants.
Saddam and six others, including his cousin "Chemical" Ali
al-Majid, have been accused of genocide and other offenses
in connection with Operation Anfal.
The prosecution alleges that about 180,000 Kurds died —
many of them civilians. Saddam and the others could face
death by hanging if convicted.
