Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti: April 28, 1937 to December 30, 2006.
In early 1970, Saddam Hussein was given the title of honorary general. 1 June 1972 he began an extensive nationalization of oil companies monopolists who were hitherto foreign hands. Iraq will know then industrial and social development without precedent. Saddam Hussein's attempts to modernize the economy and industry. In 1973, he became general and in 1979, to 42 years, feeling strong enough, he succeeded Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and becomes president of Iraq , following the cessation "precipitate" of his predecessor, ostensibly for "health reasons". Thousands of Baath party cadres are then summoned emergency and twenty-two of them, accused of treason, were arrested in the assembly chaired by Saddam Hussein smoking a cigar and sometimes crying, and are taken to the outside to be summarily executed. The scene is filmed and is broadcast live throughout the Arab world, it will serve to establish the power of the new dictator in Iraq and become famous worldwide as an illustration of his methods and personality.
In 1979, he took power, Saddam Hussein is named marshal and commander of the armed forces. During the thirty-five years of his power, he will use every possible means to control the population and reign unchallenged. Like all totalitarian regimes, propaganda is pervasive throughout various media and posters depicting the portrait of the spokes feed a cult of personality. The press is censored, while the fear of being arrested and executed paralyzes opponents (a simple offense to the head of state is even legally punishable by death), because the intelligence agents are everywhere, and informers are also common.
Saddam Hussein also uses nepotism (tends to favor the rise of their family or their entourage in the hierarchy to consolidate his personal power). And several relatives from his "clan" (son, brothers, half brothers, uncles, cousins, etc..) born often in the same town, Tikrit, are placed in senior positions, particularly within the military services and intelligence (the Mukhabarat).
However, this does not prevent the dictator to rule a real climate of fear within her own family . Thus, he does not hesitate to enforce their return from exile in Jordan, his two sons-who were disaffected, the brothers Hussein and Saddam Kamel, husband respective Raghad and Rana. He had promised before his clemency if they fell within the range (threats of the Rats on the lives of their loved ones who probably also believe the two men to return to Iraq, which will not prevent their father, mother and sisters were subsequently executed in the family home).
The Abu Ghraib prison is symbolic of the arbitrariness of the regime. Eyewitnesses report that the cells were small in size (4 × 6 meters). They were equipped with neither running water nor toilets. The prisoners, opponents of the regime, mostly pro-Iranian Shiite Islamist, piled several in these parts without comfort. Some were executed for "religious activities". Saddam Hussein has escaped several assassination attempts or attempts to overthrow by force.
At the same time, enormous progress social level have been achieved under his presidency. Iraq rapidly industrializing and becoming one of the Arab countries where the standard of living is higher, resulting in the emergence of a genuine middle class.
In 1973, Saddam launches "National Campaign for Eradication of illiteracy " an ambitious plan to fight against illiteracy. The school is free, compulsory and secular for boys and girls. In less than eighteen months, the number of teachers reached a total of sixty-two thousand people, also the number of girls enrolled is multiplied by three. UNICEF recognizes that Iraq has virtually eradicated illiteracy and have pushed the education of Iraqis to a level unprecedented in the Middle East. In 1982, UNESCO awards a trophy to Iraq for the literacy effort which the government had shown towards girls. Nearly 95 % Of girls were enrolled.
In 1977, 70% pharmacists and 46% of dentists were women. Furthermore, an intellectual and scientific elite quickly sees the day. By its very difficult childhood, he wanted the country can read and write, because for him free education was a step toward equality.
In his mind, free education for both access to the school itself, that the acquisition of textbooks and free transportation. It is for this reason that in the years 1970 and 1980, the Iraqi Ministry of Education distributes all tools necessary for a good education. Students could go to school because the buses that were free, and at the end of the school year, all students received a gift, such as watches for middle school and high school students. Hospitalization costs are now borne by the state and grants are given to farmers. The Iraqi health system is one of the most modern and effective throughout the Arab world, public services are not left out, because recruitment is now on merit.
Iraq depends heavily on the oil Saddam tried to diversify the economy conducting a plan of industrialization. Iraq becomes the first Arab state to have used its oil revenues to carry out its industrialization. It undertakes the construction of roads, main roads and buildings as well as the development of industries.
It launches energy revolution, bringing the electrification of almost all cities of Iraq (even towns located in rural or difficult to access). Nearly ten thousand villages have been electrified at the same time. Moreover, it is distributed free of Iraqis refrigerators and televisions.
Before the 1970s, Iraq was a largely rural country, following the various reforms, urbanization spreads. Saddam redistribute land to peasants, who were previously in the hands of a minority of people. He launched a land reform to allow farmers to maximize profits from their exploitation. Agriculture is mechanized, and farmers not knowing how to use the new machines are trained by the government. This reform was also aims to put an end to feudalism.
It is also launching a real cultural policy he rehabilitates and maintains the old palace dating from the Abbasid Empire, the ancient city of Babylon, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, the triple pregnant and the Ishtar Gate in Babylon. He founded several museums in Baghdad to collect and preserve the historical heritage of Iraq.
In 1980, Iraq was the only Arab country on track to meet the food sufficiency. Besides its policy of modernization did not stop at Iraq, for wanting to modernize the Arab world, he launched the National Fund for Overseas Development. He suggested that the rising price of raw or partly devoted to helping the poorest Arab states through a distribution fund. The proposal was welcomed by the citizens of Arab countries, but it is immediately rejected by the emirs of the Gulf.
Saddam Hussein as a dream of restoring the old Babylonian empire, the grandeur of ancient Mesopotamia and the influence of the Abbasid empire. In fact, his project was part of the broader framework of the draft "Renaissance of the Arab-Muslim , central idea around which revolve almost all the political projects of the Arab-Muslim world since the early twentieth century (with the exception of the Communists, many of them Shiites, but a small minority, except, perhaps, Syria and Iran in the teaching profession and, more generally, intellectual, even in Iran, aristocratic). Central idea to better understand the events of contemporary Arab-Muslim world, the ideas of conservatism, liberalism, socialism, or even dictatorship or democracy (which does not mean that the inhabitants of these regions is not not sensitive to certain individual freedoms, including Religious Freedom does not yet part), as designed in the European Union or the United States, is still quite high in the Middle East (with the notable exception of Israel).
In Iraq in particular, the entire pre-Islamic history of Mesopotamia has been highlighted with the great empires of ancient Iraq, Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Nineveh, sites Archaeological Babylon and Nineveh having been grandest restorations. The fact that the Sumerian civilization is the first of all human civilizations, the oldest of several centuries that of Egypt, and the first writing was invented there, could not, in the eyes of Saddam Hussein, that flatter the national pride of the Iraqi people and, under , a very wide was given in textbooks of history at the pre-Islamic history of Iraq, in an attempt to develop a national consciousness that Iraq is no longer based on the idea of patriotism on the idea of religion. This will
want to create a national consciousness distinct from the religious consciousness ran into very violent hostility of Sunni Salafist and Shia communities in which we have developed many Salafist and Shiite Islamist groups, banned and persecuted mercilessly by the regime, as were also the separatist Kurds, a nationalist regime which the rigor tolerate the autonomy of a province, but in any case, his independence. Activists of the Communist Party of Iraq, also prohibits under any regime Baathists who knew Iraq, were also worried, but it seems much less harshly than in Iran or Egypt, probably because they don ' have never tried, unlike Islamists, an attempt on the life of Saddam Hussein, or causing riots or insurrections, perhaps also because they were fighting, they too, against religious extremism.
Another aspect of the mythology has tried to forge Saddam Hussein relied on Saladin, the hero (Kurd born and, like Saddam Hussein in Tikrit) legendary for all Muslims, who defeated the Crusaders had taken the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem and had defeated the Third Crusade, as the heroes were in Christian Europe, Charles Martel and Charlemagne who stopped the Muslim invasion from Spain. Saddam Hussein does not neglect to give some room for the Abbasid empire, which corresponds to the height of Muslim civilization, which of course all Iraqi Muslims and, more generally, all Arabs are very proud.
Saddam Hussein wanted to see exist an Arab state capable of competing with the State of Israel develop economically, socially, politically and militarily. In this regard, and whatever one may think, the provision by Iraq, as is the case for Israel, nuclear weapons was a key factor for Iraq (and, of course, therefore, Saddam Hussein himself) recognized by Arab states such as Arab public opinion, as the undisputed leader of the Arab world after the draft United Arab Republic had fizzled. It is also not impossible that the will of the United States to oppose what Iraq, who was active, has nuclear weapons was the main cause of the outbreak of the Gulf War 1991.
After Egypt was waived, with the arrival in power Mohammed Hosni Mubarak of to play this role, Baathist Iraq tried to take over, and Saddam Hussein certainly has dreamed of being the one that history would retain the Arab world for centuries to come as having been the architect of the "Arab Renaissance". He claimed a prestigious destination for Iraq, wanting to make his country a strong state, military and technological powerhouse of the great "Arab nation", as required by iron and fire.
Non-international intervention
Editor Saddam Hussein, Iraq is becoming a regional power, thanks in part to oil revenues and support from both Western and Eastern bloc, but also benefit from the ideological support of socialist parties affiliated to the Second International, who see the Baath Party is one of -words of a socialist consciousness in the third world countries, wishing to regain their energy in a process "progressive" and "anti-colonialist." After the Islamic Revolution of Iran diplomatically isolating that country, Iraq is perceived by the West as a stabilizing force for the region , dam territorial and human can and will be used to block the way for Islamists to the riches of the "horn acacia.
then Iraq has wide international support and are countries like France and the United States (who hoped to weaken the Islamic regime of Iran and thus promote its fall) provide it in large quantities and weapons technology , the USSR will remain the largest supplier of weaponry. The Rais, who fancies himself the new Saladin and dreams to lead the Arab world by military conquest, is champion of the West. The United Nations has ever investigated the crimes of Saddam Hussein because it was impossible to violate the principles of sovereignty and noninterference in internal affairs of a state. No international assistance came not support the Kurdish victims of the gassings and the extermination policy.
In September 1980, Saddam Hussein launches Army against the mullahs of Iran, for the conquest of three objectives:
► occupy the whole of the Shatt el-Arab (the Tigris and Euphrates), the " River of the Arabs, he had to share with Iran, by the treaty of 1975;
► Doing Khaleej al-Farsi, the Persian Gulf, the Khaleej al-Arabi, the "Arabian Gulf", chasing definitely Iranian islands that control access to the Strait of Hormuz. ►
Grab the oil province of Khuzestan, appointed by the Arab nationalists, Arabistan.
Until 1988, both countries are immersed in a long and bloody war and ultimately without much results. For all its objectives, Saddam Hussein experiencing a relative failure, despite massive aid from the Soviet Union, France, the United States and to a lesser extent the UAE, who fear above all the Iranian victory in Iraq and the establishment of a Shiite Islamist regime while Saddam Hussein was secular and Sunni. After eight years of war, Iraq was able to gain a foothold on the Iranian shore of the Shatt al-Arab, but at the cost of a million dead, and his lost youth. During that conflict, Iraq used massively and systematically tear gas (1982), then deadly chemical weapons , banned from use by many international treaties, as blister and nerve agents in 1983.
regime is the author of massacre of thousands of Kurds (some estimates put the figure of one million deaths [ref. Needed]), mainly in villages headed by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), while supported by Iran.
By 1963, the Kurdish population is persecuted and massacred: 4 500 villages are destroyed, landmines are scattered in the region and agricultural lands are being devastated. On 11 March 1974, Saddam Hussein signed with both parties' autonomy / independence "KDP and PUK Kurdish agreement on the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan, with the" Law for autonomy in the area of Kurdistan, "which states including that "the Kurdish language should be the official language for education of the Kurds." This law also allows the election of an autonomous legislative council, which controls its own budget. However, 72 of the 80 elected members of the council of the first session in October 1974 were selected by Baghdad. In October 1977, the entire board is chosen by the regime.
During the war against Iran, because of the support accorded by that State when the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurds are in general accused of being "traitors to the Iraq "and" saboteurs ", thereby justifying the launch of Operation Al-Anfal, which was implemented between February 23, 1988 and September 6, 1988. Operation Al-Anfal comes in a series of six operations to 6 different regions of Kurdistan. Thus, the "First Anfal, which targeted regions and Sergalou Bergalou took place between February 23 and March 19, 1988, while the sixth Anfal, said "Final Anfal, which targeted the region Badinan, was held from August 25 to September 6, 1988. Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", admitted during his trial that he ordered the army to execute all Kurds who ignore orders to evacuate their villages.
Operation Al-Anfal would have led to the disappearance of about 182,000 Kurds (one of Al-Anfal had "provoked the exodus to Turkey nearly 100 000 civilians, according to Kendal Nezan, who also writes that there were 400,000 deaths in fifteen years, provided that one knows what these figures cover). The Iraqi Special Tribunal found Ali Hassan al-Majid guilty of the massacre of 182,000 Kurds.
On June 24, 2007 Ali Hassan al-Majid, nicknamed "Chemical Ali" , and two other former senior officials of Saddam Hussein were sentenced to death by hanging for genocide against the Kurds during the Anfal campaign. The American NGO Human Rights Watch said about it he would have been about 100,000 "non-combatant Kurds" killed During this operation, according to a survey conducted and published in the 1990s. In December 2005 a court in The Hague has described the campaign of "genocide " during the trial of an industry that exported chemicals to Iraq of Saddam Hussein.
On March 16, 1988, five thousand Kurds died in the town of Halabja and bombings cause 30,000 to 40,000 infections. At the time, Washington, and at least as some Kurds of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) argued at the time by Iraq, had argued the thesis that Iran and not Iraq was behind the massacre, the U.S. had accused Iraq of this crime as From August 1990, Tariq Aziz has also said in an interview he gave to an American journalist who has published his statements in a book published in the U.S. in the early 2000s, stating in particular, to support its statements, that the poison gas used, gas whose nature can be determined from photographs taken of the victims were of a type of those used by the Iranian army, and possessed not the Iraqi army. The US-UK coalition would have found, between 2003 and 2005, 288 mass graves containing bodies of some 300 000 people executed by the Baathist regime. On December 13, 2004 would have been discovered a mass grave containing nearly five hundred corpses, including women and children, near Suleimaniya.
Following the use of chemical weapons, two million terrified civilians, mostly Kurds, but also Arab and Assyrian-Chaldean Shia, fled from Spring 1991 to neighboring countries of Iraq. Saddam Hussein managed to clear these areas and submit to his dictatorship. Thousands of people accused of separatism (Kurds) or with the enemy (pro-Iranian Islamists) are deported, tortured or killed on the border with Turkey and across the country.
recent years, several developments will drive Saddam Hussein to be tried by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. First Iraq, as a country bordering Iran, has suffered heavy losses in the last war. Some people believe that's because Iraq has resisted he could protect other Arab countries including Saudi Arabia. Iraq sees evil and its neighboring Arab brothers do not help most in its reconstruction effort.
Then there are differences over the oil fields in southern Iraq, with Kuwait. The latter carries a 1990 drilling horizontally, which is supposed to take the oil in Iraqi territory. Finally, include the colossal debt of the Iraqi state, which had bought eight years quantity of sophisticated weapons as possible, and many expensive high-tech products, to the great satisfaction of industrial powers, is delighted to find a new outlet mall, so useful in times of economic crisis. Baghdad had purchased for years, encouraged by Western governments that eliminated the barriers to economic cooperation, but unfortunately at the end of the war, the businessmen were at the rendezvous, all rushing to Baghdad in the hope to be paid. Add to that the creditors of the Gulf, also requesting reimbursement.
Cash in part on oil revenues to reduce debt, Saddam Hussein is facing the sharp drop in raging since 1986. Indeed, several oil-producing countries are not meeting their annual quotas, and eventually flood the market with overproduction to a brutal drop in oil prices. These countries include the small emirate of Kuwait, which Iraq has long been regarded as one of its provinces, which produces more than necessary when he has no apparent need for liquidity.
In 1990, Saddam Hussein decided the invasion of Kuwait. In the first time, the U.S. ambassador that transmits "the U.S. has any opinions on the matter ", which is equivalent to approval by tolerance in diplomatic language. So Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The United States re-evaluate the situation and then show their opposition to the annexation.
At a meeting at the UN, the United States advocating a military intervention while "a young Kuwaiti woman in tears told the cruelties of the Iraqi armed : rapes, summary executions, theft of incubators in hospitals (which condemns premature infants). The UN approved the war Gulf (1990-1991), which ended in defeat in Iraq. However, coalition forces prefer to "contain" the Iraqi regime, rather than risk destabilizing the Persian Gulf. Thus, the allied armies took control of northern and southern Iraq, but do not push their military advantage to Baghdad. Saddam Hussein remains in power and matte rebellion, the Allies do not act. Order is restored in central Iraq under Saddam's control.
An economic blockade is established by decision of the UN for twelve years (the program "Oil Food cons), but failed to topple Saddam Hussein. This blockade, or use that was Saddam Hussein, would have resulted in the death of twelve five hundred thousand to one million children, according to the UN. UNICEF announced a number of 200 000 deaths annually .
Saddam Hussein Matt rebellions in blood (he even, reportedly, used poison gas), including the uprising of pro-Iranian Shi'ite Islamists in the south, where looting, before drying over Later, the marshes of Mesopotamia where the rebels were hiding under the eyes of the international forces who refuse to intervene.
For or against the intervention in Iraq
It retains authority over his people, but the country still controlled by coalition forces and the UN. Only Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern part of the country outside its supervision, becoming de facto independent since that time, because of military action the United States in favor of the rebels.
This period is an evolution of a secular Iraq to a more religious Iraq: construction of several mosques, including one who was to be the most wide world (to the airport and neighborhood of Al-Mansour), images of Saddam Hussein praying (although it was not new), writing of the Koran with his blood, more severe prohibition of alcohol, elimination of prostitution ... However, even then (1998), could still be seen in Baghdad in the street or in offices, young women in miniskirts chat with friends almost entirely obscured.
property of Saddam Hussein were frozen by a UN decision in 2002, including his two villas on the Riviera Mougins and Cannes. The Iraqi government has requested to acquire.
March 20, 2003, the United States and its allies (mainly the United Kingdom) attack Iraq and Saddam Hussein and the reverse during a lightning war (March-April 2003).
The reason given by U.S. President George W. Bush for attacking the country is the detained by Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. This war has not received a mandate from the UN: the decision should be taken unanimously by the members of the Security Council. He lacked the votes of France and Russia. An official report published in October 2004 by Washington will conclude that Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction although several tons of toxic and five hundred shells were found chemical load. The other reason is that the reconstruction of a Middle East growing "democracy" instead of tyranny. However, according to many analysts and intellectuals, the financial interests of the American oil industry in general and the Bush family in particular are not strangers to this invasion.
The fall of Baghdad, April 9, 2003, mark the official end of the Baathist regime in Iraq and entry into the underground of Saddam Hussein and many senior Baathists, although some of them, as Tariq Aziz, have voluntarily handed over to the occupying forces. After several months spent in hiding, Saddam Hussein was arrested in a cellar by the U.S. military in Tikrit on the night of 13 to 14 December 2003.
It quickly "shown" with shaggy hair and beard to the media by the U.S. military, with the aim of undermining the morale of the armed groups close party Baas. In reality, these images were perhaps well received by many Shiite and Sunni Salafists, but they seem to have deeply offended the Sunni Baathists, who would have received as an insult or as a humiliation of the Iraqi nation as a whole , and the results of all elections in the Sunni-majority provinces were then shown, and would therefore reinforces the vast majority of Sunnis in their determination to fight one way or another against the occupier.
The opening of the preliminary phase his trial held in Baghdad in early July 2004 . is a special court, the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST), who deems genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, along with several other prominent members of the Baath party. One thousand five hundred people including twenty-two senior counsel from Iraq, Jordan, Libya, France and the United States have volunteered to defend Saddam Hussein. Jacques Verges and Roland Dumas are some of the many lawyers.
Saddam Hussein - The Trial of Saddam Hussein's fourth
On July 7, 2005, Ziad al-Khasawneh, lead attorney for Saddam Hussein, resigned, following pressure from American lawyers, wanted to prevent him from taking a stand against the Iraqi resistance and the armed invasion.
On August 8, 2005, all appointed lawyers from the Tribunal, but one Iraqi, Khalil al-Dulaimi, are challenged by the Hussein family, who are accused of having self-appointed defenders of Saddam Hussein without being authorized.
September 4, spokesman of the Iraqi government announced that the opening of a first trial will be held on October 19 , just after the referendum on the draft constitution, scheduled Oct. 15. This trial will concern only the death sentence by an Iraqi court and the execution of 148 Shiites from the village of Dujail in 1982 (whose only "crime" for some, was to have been a member of the secret organization Islamist who organized the attempted assassination of Saddam Hussein without having themselves participated actively in the assassination attempt), destruction of private property and exile house for four years, 14,000 inhabitants of this city.
Saddam Hussein - The Trial of Saddam 2 / 4
The government spokesman also said that if Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death, the sentence could be executed without waiting for the trial relating to other trials that were planned on other indictments brought against Saddam Hussein. The death penalty had been abolished in Iraq by the administrator Civil Iraq Paul Bremer and seems to have been reintroduced following the arrest of Saddam Hussein.
October 19, the opening day of the trial, Saddam Hussein defied the court, by not recognizing its authority and pleaded not guilty for the Dujail massacre. Scheduled witnesses at trial, too afraid to be public witnesses, did not come to Baghdad. The first trial of Saddam Hussein was then adjourned to allow time for them in a safe manner. The next hearing was scheduled for November 28 but was again postponed until December 5. On 6 December, Saddam Hussein continues to "disturb" the trial.
On January 23, 2006, the President of the Tribunal Rizgar Mohammed al-Amin resigned, it is replaced by Raouf Abdul Rahman considered firmer.
March 15, Saddam Hussein is called by the prosecution as a witness. At the helm, he made a political statement, saying he still considered himself particularly as the president of Iraq, calling on Iraqis to stop the violence between them and fight U.S. troops. The judge then cut off his microphone and after the hearing took place in camera.
Saddam Hussein - The Trial of Saddam Hussein three quarters
On 15 May, he was formally accused of "Crime cons humanity " for the massacre in Dujail, and refuses to plead, three of his lawyers were murdered during the first days of the trial and Saddam Hussein has challenged all those assigned, the Iraqi Special Tribunal in its proposed replacement, adding that "there was no opportunity to judge the President of Iraq, "or that" the Iraqi Special Tribunal has no authority, after the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq, to try the President of Iraq (Saddam Hussein does not recognize the new Iraqi constitution adopted 15 October of the year before, "pretext" that she had been "imposed" on Iraq by foreign forces of occupation).
His lawyers are boycotting the trial accusing the court of bias and lack of independence vis-à-vis political power. Saddam Hussein also refused to be present at the hearings. Chairman court then ordered the convocation of office. Witnesses called by the defense, suspected of having lied to the court, are imprisoned.
June 19, Jaffar al-Musawi, the Attorney General of the Iraqi Special Tribunal requires the death penalty against Saddam Hussein against his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and against the former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Saddam Hussein - The Trial of Saddam Hussein 4 / 4
receiving no lawyer other than those officially appointed by the court, the Canadian advisor to defense lawyers, William Wiley, who will write the final argument. Latter as the adviser to assist the judges, the U.S. attorney Eric Blinderman, both sent by the U.S. government had a role to ensure the smooth running of the trial according to international standards and fairness procedure.
November 5, Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity. According to the statutes of the tribunal, there is an automatic appeal that conviction. The appeals trial lasted thirty days.
On 29 December 2006, the world learns MP Sami al-Askari, a collaborator of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Saddam Hussein will be executed on the night of 29 to 30 December 2006 or, if later, January 4, 2007 (after the Eid al-Adha, the feast of the most sacred Muslim calendar).
On 30 December 2006, former Iraqi president is finally executed in Baghdad at 06 h 05 local time (03 h 05 GMT). Delivered by Americans to Iraqi authorities, these are Iraqis who are running sentence. Saddam Hussein is led to the gallows, arms and feet shackled, but remains calm and reads verses from the Koran. He asked to have his head uncovered, which was granted. It will accept a scarf to avoid injuries caused by the rope. Throughout the duration of the preparation of its execution, (or of) many Shiite officials present at the place of execution the insult, or chanting "Moqtada, Moqtada", referring to Muqtada al-Sadr, the Leader of the Mahdi Army, whose father, Islamist, was executed on the orders of Saddam Hussein. She was picked up by many channels television around the world, chains that seem to have, for the most censored all or part of the soundtrack.
The hanging of Saddam Hussein put an end to all lawsuits in which it had yet to respond before the Iraqi Special Tribunal, whose seven other procedures, all likely to lead to a death sentence, during the succession of trials would ensue if Saddam Hussein was not sentenced to death at the trial before the next one, since all crimes were classified as crimes against humanity (all the crimes Saddam Hussein is, for reasons that are remain a mystery, before 1991, that classification of crimes was essential so that there is no requirement.) If, unusually, Saddam Hussein had been sentenced to death at his first trial, another trial would therefore have been opened, after which Saddam Hussein might be over the age of 70 years, age from which we can normally run over a condemned in Iraq.
Immediately after the execution on the fly triggers a controversy . Many observers complain a " Masquerade, "a" travesty of justice. " Thus, according to Antoine Basbous, director of the Observatory of Arab Countries, interviewed on France 3, 2 January 2007, the choice to execute Saddam Hussein on the day of Eid al-Adha was disastrous. Execute Saddam Hussein one day of peace and forgiveness for Sunnis (to the Shiites, Eid was the next day), moreover, a holiday in which we sacrifice an animal, according to him would be a deliberate provocation on the part of those who now hold power in Baghdad.
The takeover
The characteristics of the Iraqi dictatorship
However, this does not prevent the dictator to rule a real climate of fear within her own family . Thus, he does not hesitate to enforce their return from exile in Jordan, his two sons-who were disaffected, the brothers Hussein and Saddam Kamel, husband respective Raghad and Rana. He had promised before his clemency if they fell within the range (threats of the Rats on the lives of their loved ones who probably also believe the two men to return to Iraq, which will not prevent their father, mother and sisters were subsequently executed in the family home).
Modern Iraq
At the same time, enormous progress social level have been achieved under his presidency. Iraq rapidly industrializing and becoming one of the Arab countries where the standard of living is higher, resulting in the emergence of a genuine middle class.
In 1977, 70% pharmacists and 46% of dentists were women. Furthermore, an intellectual and scientific elite quickly sees the day. By its very difficult childhood, he wanted the country can read and write, because for him free education was a step toward equality.
In his mind, free education for both access to the school itself, that the acquisition of textbooks and free transportation. It is for this reason that in the years 1970 and 1980, the Iraqi Ministry of Education distributes all tools necessary for a good education. Students could go to school because the buses that were free, and at the end of the school year, all students received a gift, such as watches for middle school and high school students. Hospitalization costs are now borne by the state and grants are given to farmers. The Iraqi health system is one of the most modern and effective throughout the Arab world, public services are not left out, because recruitment is now on merit.
It launches energy revolution, bringing the electrification of almost all cities of Iraq (even towns located in rural or difficult to access). Nearly ten thousand villages have been electrified at the same time. Moreover, it is distributed free of Iraqis refrigerators and televisions.
Before the 1970s, Iraq was a largely rural country, following the various reforms, urbanization spreads. Saddam redistribute land to peasants, who were previously in the hands of a minority of people. He launched a land reform to allow farmers to maximize profits from their exploitation. Agriculture is mechanized, and farmers not knowing how to use the new machines are trained by the government. This reform was also aims to put an end to feudalism.
In 1980, Iraq was the only Arab country on track to meet the food sufficiency. Besides its policy of modernization did not stop at Iraq, for wanting to modernize the Arab world, he launched the National Fund for Overseas Development. He suggested that the rising price of raw or partly devoted to helping the poorest Arab states through a distribution fund. The proposal was welcomed by the citizens of Arab countries, but it is immediately rejected by the emirs of the Gulf.
His dream of a "New Babylonian Empire"
want to create a national consciousness distinct from the religious consciousness ran into very violent hostility of Sunni Salafist and Shia communities in which we have developed many Salafist and Shiite Islamist groups, banned and persecuted mercilessly by the regime, as were also the separatist Kurds, a nationalist regime which the rigor tolerate the autonomy of a province, but in any case, his independence. Activists of the Communist Party of Iraq, also prohibits under any regime Baathists who knew Iraq, were also worried, but it seems much less harshly than in Iran or Egypt, probably because they don ' have never tried, unlike Islamists, an attempt on the life of Saddam Hussein, or causing riots or insurrections, perhaps also because they were fighting, they too, against religious extremism.
Editor Saddam Hussein, Iraq is becoming a regional power, thanks in part to oil revenues and support from both Western and Eastern bloc, but also benefit from the ideological support of socialist parties affiliated to the Second International, who see the Baath Party is one of -words of a socialist consciousness in the third world countries, wishing to regain their energy in a process "progressive" and "anti-colonialist." After the Islamic Revolution of Iran diplomatically isolating that country, Iraq is perceived by the West as a stabilizing force for the region , dam territorial and human can and will be used to block the way for Islamists to the riches of the "horn acacia. then Iraq has wide international support and are countries like France and the United States (who hoped to weaken the Islamic regime of Iran and thus promote its fall) provide it in large quantities and weapons technology , the USSR will remain the largest supplier of weaponry. The Rais, who fancies himself the new Saladin and dreams to lead the Arab world by military conquest, is champion of the West. The United Nations has ever investigated the crimes of Saddam Hussein because it was impossible to violate the principles of sovereignty and noninterference in internal affairs of a state. No international assistance came not support the Kurdish victims of the gassings and the extermination policy.
crimes of Saddam Hussein (Warning: shocking pictures!)
The Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988)
► occupy the whole of the Shatt el-Arab (the Tigris and Euphrates), the " River of the Arabs, he had to share with Iran, by the treaty of 1975;
► Doing Khaleej al-Farsi, the Persian Gulf, the Khaleej al-Arabi, the "Arabian Gulf", chasing definitely Iranian islands that control access to the Strait of Hormuz. ►
Grab the oil province of Khuzestan, appointed by the Arab nationalists, Arabistan.
Until 1988, both countries are immersed in a long and bloody war and ultimately without much results. For all its objectives, Saddam Hussein experiencing a relative failure, despite massive aid from the Soviet Union, France, the United States and to a lesser extent the UAE, who fear above all the Iranian victory in Iraq and the establishment of a Shiite Islamist regime while Saddam Hussein was secular and Sunni. After eight years of war, Iraq was able to gain a foothold on the Iranian shore of the Shatt al-Arab, but at the cost of a million dead, and his lost youth. During that conflict, Iraq used massively and systematically tear gas (1982), then deadly chemical weapons , banned from use by many international treaties, as blister and nerve agents in 1983.
The massacre of Kurds
regime is the author of massacre of thousands of Kurds (some estimates put the figure of one million deaths [ref. Needed]), mainly in villages headed by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), while supported by Iran.
By 1963, the Kurdish population is persecuted and massacred: 4 500 villages are destroyed, landmines are scattered in the region and agricultural lands are being devastated. On 11 March 1974, Saddam Hussein signed with both parties' autonomy / independence "KDP and PUK Kurdish agreement on the autonomy of Iraqi Kurdistan, with the" Law for autonomy in the area of Kurdistan, "which states including that "the Kurdish language should be the official language for education of the Kurds." This law also allows the election of an autonomous legislative council, which controls its own budget. However, 72 of the 80 elected members of the council of the first session in October 1974 were selected by Baghdad. In October 1977, the entire board is chosen by the regime.
During the war against Iran, because of the support accorded by that State when the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurds are in general accused of being "traitors to the Iraq "and" saboteurs ", thereby justifying the launch of Operation Al-Anfal, which was implemented between February 23, 1988 and September 6, 1988. Operation Al-Anfal comes in a series of six operations to 6 different regions of Kurdistan. Thus, the "First Anfal, which targeted regions and Sergalou Bergalou took place between February 23 and March 19, 1988, while the sixth Anfal, said "Final Anfal, which targeted the region Badinan, was held from August 25 to September 6, 1988. Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", admitted during his trial that he ordered the army to execute all Kurds who ignore orders to evacuate their villages.
Operation Al-Anfal would have led to the disappearance of about 182,000 Kurds (one of Al-Anfal had "provoked the exodus to Turkey nearly 100 000 civilians, according to Kendal Nezan, who also writes that there were 400,000 deaths in fifteen years, provided that one knows what these figures cover). The Iraqi Special Tribunal found Ali Hassan al-Majid guilty of the massacre of 182,000 Kurds.
On March 16, 1988, five thousand Kurds died in the town of Halabja and bombings cause 30,000 to 40,000 infections. At the time, Washington, and at least as some Kurds of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) argued at the time by Iraq, had argued the thesis that Iran and not Iraq was behind the massacre, the U.S. had accused Iraq of this crime as From August 1990, Tariq Aziz has also said in an interview he gave to an American journalist who has published his statements in a book published in the U.S. in the early 2000s, stating in particular, to support its statements, that the poison gas used, gas whose nature can be determined from photographs taken of the victims were of a type of those used by the Iranian army, and possessed not the Iraqi army. The US-UK coalition would have found, between 2003 and 2005, 288 mass graves containing bodies of some 300 000 people executed by the Baathist regime. On December 13, 2004 would have been discovered a mass grave containing nearly five hundred corpses, including women and children, near Suleimaniya.
Following the use of chemical weapons, two million terrified civilians, mostly Kurds, but also Arab and Assyrian-Chaldean Shia, fled from Spring 1991 to neighboring countries of Iraq. Saddam Hussein managed to clear these areas and submit to his dictatorship. Thousands of people accused of separatism (Kurds) or with the enemy (pro-Iranian Islamists) are deported, tortured or killed on the border with Turkey and across the country.
invasion of Kuwait and the Gulf War (1990-1991)
recent years, several developments will drive Saddam Hussein to be tried by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. First Iraq, as a country bordering Iran, has suffered heavy losses in the last war. Some people believe that's because Iraq has resisted he could protect other Arab countries including Saudi Arabia. Iraq sees evil and its neighboring Arab brothers do not help most in its reconstruction effort. Then there are differences over the oil fields in southern Iraq, with Kuwait. The latter carries a 1990 drilling horizontally, which is supposed to take the oil in Iraqi territory. Finally, include the colossal debt of the Iraqi state, which had bought eight years quantity of sophisticated weapons as possible, and many expensive high-tech products, to the great satisfaction of industrial powers, is delighted to find a new outlet mall, so useful in times of economic crisis. Baghdad had purchased for years, encouraged by Western governments that eliminated the barriers to economic cooperation, but unfortunately at the end of the war, the businessmen were at the rendezvous, all rushing to Baghdad in the hope to be paid. Add to that the creditors of the Gulf, also requesting reimbursement.
Cash in part on oil revenues to reduce debt, Saddam Hussein is facing the sharp drop in raging since 1986. Indeed, several oil-producing countries are not meeting their annual quotas, and eventually flood the market with overproduction to a brutal drop in oil prices. These countries include the small emirate of Kuwait, which Iraq has long been regarded as one of its provinces, which produces more than necessary when he has no apparent need for liquidity.
In 1990, Saddam Hussein decided the invasion of Kuwait. In the first time, the U.S. ambassador that transmits "the U.S. has any opinions on the matter ", which is equivalent to approval by tolerance in diplomatic language. So Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The United States re-evaluate the situation and then show their opposition to the annexation.
At a meeting at the UN, the United States advocating a military intervention while "a young Kuwaiti woman in tears told the cruelties of the Iraqi armed : rapes, summary executions, theft of incubators in hospitals (which condemns premature infants). The UN approved the war Gulf (1990-1991), which ended in defeat in Iraq. However, coalition forces prefer to "contain" the Iraqi regime, rather than risk destabilizing the Persian Gulf. Thus, the allied armies took control of northern and southern Iraq, but do not push their military advantage to Baghdad. Saddam Hussein remains in power and matte rebellion, the Allies do not act. Order is restored in central Iraq under Saddam's control.
Iraq under international embargo (1991-2003)
An economic blockade is established by decision of the UN for twelve years (the program "Oil Food cons), but failed to topple Saddam Hussein. This blockade, or use that was Saddam Hussein, would have resulted in the death of twelve five hundred thousand to one million children, according to the UN. UNICEF announced a number of 200 000 deaths annually .
Saddam Hussein Matt rebellions in blood (he even, reportedly, used poison gas), including the uprising of pro-Iranian Shi'ite Islamists in the south, where looting, before drying over Later, the marshes of Mesopotamia where the rebels were hiding under the eyes of the international forces who refuse to intervene.
For or against the intervention in Iraq
It retains authority over his people, but the country still controlled by coalition forces and the UN. Only Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern part of the country outside its supervision, becoming de facto independent since that time, because of military action the United States in favor of the rebels.
This period is an evolution of a secular Iraq to a more religious Iraq: construction of several mosques, including one who was to be the most wide world (to the airport and neighborhood of Al-Mansour), images of Saddam Hussein praying (although it was not new), writing of the Koran with his blood, more severe prohibition of alcohol, elimination of prostitution ... However, even then (1998), could still be seen in Baghdad in the street or in offices, young women in miniskirts chat with friends almost entirely obscured.
property of Saddam Hussein were frozen by a UN decision in 2002, including his two villas on the Riviera Mougins and Cannes. The Iraqi government has requested to acquire.
Falling (2003)
March 20, 2003, the United States and its allies (mainly the United Kingdom) attack Iraq and Saddam Hussein and the reverse during a lightning war (March-April 2003).
The reason given by U.S. President George W. Bush for attacking the country is the detained by Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. This war has not received a mandate from the UN: the decision should be taken unanimously by the members of the Security Council. He lacked the votes of France and Russia. An official report published in October 2004 by Washington will conclude that Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction although several tons of toxic and five hundred shells were found chemical load. The other reason is that the reconstruction of a Middle East growing "democracy" instead of tyranny. However, according to many analysts and intellectuals, the financial interests of the American oil industry in general and the Bush family in particular are not strangers to this invasion.
Trial (2005-2006)
Saddam Hussein - The Trial of Saddam Hussein's fourth
On July 7, 2005, Ziad al-Khasawneh, lead attorney for Saddam Hussein, resigned, following pressure from American lawyers, wanted to prevent him from taking a stand against the Iraqi resistance and the armed invasion.
On August 8, 2005, all appointed lawyers from the Tribunal, but one Iraqi, Khalil al-Dulaimi, are challenged by the Hussein family, who are accused of having self-appointed defenders of Saddam Hussein without being authorized.
September 4, spokesman of the Iraqi government announced that the opening of a first trial will be held on October 19 , just after the referendum on the draft constitution, scheduled Oct. 15. This trial will concern only the death sentence by an Iraqi court and the execution of 148 Shiites from the village of Dujail in 1982 (whose only "crime" for some, was to have been a member of the secret organization Islamist who organized the attempted assassination of Saddam Hussein without having themselves participated actively in the assassination attempt), destruction of private property and exile house for four years, 14,000 inhabitants of this city.
Saddam Hussein - The Trial of Saddam 2 / 4
The government spokesman also said that if Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death, the sentence could be executed without waiting for the trial relating to other trials that were planned on other indictments brought against Saddam Hussein. The death penalty had been abolished in Iraq by the administrator Civil Iraq Paul Bremer and seems to have been reintroduced following the arrest of Saddam Hussein.
October 19, the opening day of the trial, Saddam Hussein defied the court, by not recognizing its authority and pleaded not guilty for the Dujail massacre. Scheduled witnesses at trial, too afraid to be public witnesses, did not come to Baghdad. The first trial of Saddam Hussein was then adjourned to allow time for them in a safe manner. The next hearing was scheduled for November 28 but was again postponed until December 5. On 6 December, Saddam Hussein continues to "disturb" the trial.
March 15, Saddam Hussein is called by the prosecution as a witness. At the helm, he made a political statement, saying he still considered himself particularly as the president of Iraq, calling on Iraqis to stop the violence between them and fight U.S. troops. The judge then cut off his microphone and after the hearing took place in camera.
Saddam Hussein - The Trial of Saddam Hussein three quarters
On 15 May, he was formally accused of "Crime cons humanity " for the massacre in Dujail, and refuses to plead, three of his lawyers were murdered during the first days of the trial and Saddam Hussein has challenged all those assigned, the Iraqi Special Tribunal in its proposed replacement, adding that "there was no opportunity to judge the President of Iraq, "or that" the Iraqi Special Tribunal has no authority, after the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq, to try the President of Iraq (Saddam Hussein does not recognize the new Iraqi constitution adopted 15 October of the year before, "pretext" that she had been "imposed" on Iraq by foreign forces of occupation).
June 19, Jaffar al-Musawi, the Attorney General of the Iraqi Special Tribunal requires the death penalty against Saddam Hussein against his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and against the former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Saddam Hussein - The Trial of Saddam Hussein 4 / 4
receiving no lawyer other than those officially appointed by the court, the Canadian advisor to defense lawyers, William Wiley, who will write the final argument. Latter as the adviser to assist the judges, the U.S. attorney Eric Blinderman, both sent by the U.S. government had a role to ensure the smooth running of the trial according to international standards and fairness procedure.
On 29 December 2006, the world learns MP Sami al-Askari, a collaborator of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Saddam Hussein will be executed on the night of 29 to 30 December 2006 or, if later, January 4, 2007 (after the Eid al-Adha, the feast of the most sacred Muslim calendar).
The hanging of Saddam Hussein put an end to all lawsuits in which it had yet to respond before the Iraqi Special Tribunal, whose seven other procedures, all likely to lead to a death sentence, during the succession of trials would ensue if Saddam Hussein was not sentenced to death at the trial before the next one, since all crimes were classified as crimes against humanity (all the crimes Saddam Hussein is, for reasons that are remain a mystery, before 1991, that classification of crimes was essential so that there is no requirement.) If, unusually, Saddam Hussein had been sentenced to death at his first trial, another trial would therefore have been opened, after which Saddam Hussein might be over the age of 70 years, age from which we can normally run over a condemned in Iraq.
Immediately after the execution on the fly triggers a controversy . Many observers complain a " Masquerade, "a" travesty of justice. " Thus, according to Antoine Basbous, director of the Observatory of Arab Countries, interviewed on France 3, 2 January 2007, the choice to execute Saddam Hussein on the day of Eid al-Adha was disastrous. Execute Saddam Hussein one day of peace and forgiveness for Sunnis (to the Shiites, Eid was the next day), moreover, a holiday in which we sacrifice an animal, according to him would be a deliberate provocation on the part of those who now hold power in Baghdad.
Biography of Saddam Hussein (in English)
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