Drama in the court

"I AM Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq," were the defiant words of the Iraqi leader as he was paraded before a kangaroo court in Baghdad, soon after the so-called transfer of power there. Saddam Hussein was reportedly flown from an American military base in Qatar to be presented before an Iraqi court, his first public appearance after he was captured by the American forces in December. It is to the credit of the Iraqi leader that he conducted himself with courage and dignity, always referring to himself in the third person during his inquisition by the court.

The American authorities initially tried their best to show that it was the Iraqi government that was in charge of the judicial proceedings. However, when the Court started its hearing, they did not even allow the airing of the audiotape of Saddam Hussein's voice. Less than 30 people were allowed to attend the proceedings, and the media representatives present were handpicked by the American authorities. No representatives from the Iraqi media were allowed in. Even the reports filed by the chosen few from the foreign media were heavily censored, and the videotape of Saddam entering the court premises in chains was destroyed. Eleven other former close associates of Saddam, such as Taha Yassin Ramadan, Ali Hassan al-Majid and Tariq Aziz, were also charged by the same court with crimes against humanity.

The six charges against Saddam Hussein relate to the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the suppression of the American-instigated Shia and Kurdish uprising in 1991, the military action against Kurdish separatists in 1987-88, the gassing of villagers in Hallabja in 1988, the elimination of political activists, and the killing of thousands of Kurds belonging to the Barzani clan.

Saddam Hussein made his contempt for his inquisitors clear when he told the chief judge that he was an Iraqi representing the occupation forces. "Remember you are a judge. Don't talk for the occupiers," he admonished the judge. The 33-year-old judge who had earlier worked as a translator for the Americans was given his new job by Paul Bremer, the former Pro-Consul of Iraq. He was the same judge who had ruled that the radical Moqtada al-Sadr was responsible for the assassination of a leading Shia cleric in the holy city of Najaf soon after the American-led invasion. Saddam Hussein said that the entire trial "is all a theatre by Bush the criminal, to help him win the elections". The Iraqi leader refused to sign any legal documents, saying that he would only do so after he was provided with a competent legal team. When asked about his current residential address, he replied that he resides in the house of every Iraqi.

"I am not talking about Saddam Hussein, whether he was a citizen or in other capacities. I'm not holding fast to my position, but to respect the will of the people that decided to choose Saddam Hussein as the leader of the revolution," he told the court. A few months before the American invasion, Iraqis had participated in large numbers to endorse Saddam Hussein's position as the President of Iraq. For the past seven months, he has been held in isolation, and constantly interrogated without lawyers to advise him.

The lawyers who want to represent Saddam Hussein said that they were kept in the dark about the proceedings held in Baghdad. "The tribunal being put in place by the Americans is a disguised execution squad," said the French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, a member of the defence team. He is of the opinion that Saddam Hussein will be "judged in fear or in vengeance". Saddam Hussein's legal team, which was hired by his wife Sajida, is headed by Mohammad Rashdan, who is currently based in the Jordanian capital, Amman. A British lawyer, Tim Hughes, also a part of the team, has said that its members were "kept in the dark" about the proceedings in Baghdad. The lawyers also said that they were not given any assurances about their safety and well-being in Baghdad. Some of them have, in fact, received death threats.

Surprisingly, the charge of unjustly waging war against neighbouring Iran, which resulted in the death of more than a million people, has not been framed. The Iranian government has demanded that Saddam Hussein be tried by an international court on this issue. If Saddam is ever tried on this issue, American complicity and culpability in instigating the eight-year-old Iran-Iraq war will be revealed. Donald Rumsfeld, the current American Defence Secretary, was one of the key American officials who cemented the strong military ties that existed between Washington and Baghdad throughout most of the 1980s.

If he is allowed to have his way, Saddam Hussein could demand that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) be called to testify on the "Hallabja" incident. When the judge asked Saddam about the incident, he said that he had read about it in the newspapers. The Reagan administration had not made much of a fuss about it at that time. There are also reports that the number of those killed in Hallabja were exaggerated. Another version is that it was the Iranian side that used poison gas on the Kurdish town. The incident had taken place in last days of the Iran-Iraq war. Hussein was dismissive, as well as contemptuous, about the charges relating to the invasion of Kuwait. The average Iraqi has been taught since childhood that Kuwait is a province of Iraq. He told the court that Kuwait is trying to strangle Iraq economically and described them as "dogs" - one of the worst insults in the Islamist lexicon.

There have been demonstrations in support of Saddam Hussein in many parts of Iraq, especially in the "Sunni triangle" in central Iraq, though there were no signs of celebrations after he faced the court for the first time.