Is Saddam Hussein's Trial Legitimate? By Abdulsalam Olatubosun Ajetunmobi
I
opposed the American-led war against Iraq not because I doubted the
torrent of reports about the trauma of Saddam’s dictatorship nor the
allegations that his reign caused tremendous sufferings for Iraqis, but
rather because I thought that there was a serious inconsistency in
American policy towards the War on Terror and weapons of mass
destruction plus the fact that the diplomatic mean had not been
thoroughly exhausted before the war was launched. Aside the
niceties of the right or wrong of the war on Saddam
Hussein is not facing the court for the first time: he was arrested for
six months in 1958 on suspicion of murdering a political rival of his
uncle’s, and served two years for a plot to assassinate an erstwhile
Iraq’s leader Brigadier 'Abd al-Karim Qassem in
1964. His second term in prison ended when he escaped from jail.
However, for lack of proper representation during last week court
appearance, many have expressed concerns about the legitimacy of the
special tribunal. They then argue that the ousted leader should not be
the only defendant in court, and that the conducts of those who ended
his tyranny should also be put on trial since they maintained and sold
him poison gas and other weapons he allegedly used against his own and
others’ citizens. These are fair points, but what becomes of
Saddam’s own responsibility and accountability? Well, since Saddam has
cast himself as ‘the sword of Islam’ even though his regime was
secularist and nationalistic in nature, let us consider the position of
the religion on this. On individual responsibility, the Holy Qur’an
reads: “And the devil
will say … I had no authority
over you, except that I called you and you obeyed me; so blame me not
but blame yourselves.…” (Qur’an 14:22) Satan
in the above verse disclaims the possession of any power to lead human
beings astray. It is indeed true that Satan has no power over any human
being for, just as angels are instruments for the manifestation of human
good qualities, Satan is only instrument for the manifestation of human
weakness. In reality we are
led astray by our own baser self. Satan in that context only calls and
it is we human beings who obey. The function of Satan and, therefore,
any other human indoctrinators is merely to make evil suggestions, just
as the function of angels is to make good suggestions. Angels cannot
make us good, nor can Satan make us bad. They only show the way, good or
bad, and we human beings do the rest. To
drive home my point, let us consider the effect of The bottom
line here is that, though Saddam’s dictatorial style of rule might
have, in the past, received tacit approval from America, it was
Saddam’s own baser self that informed his actions as the passage
quoted above has indicated. Saddam is therefore the sole architect of
his own misfortune regardless of American’s past influence on his
regime. And even if we have to consider the conducts of Saddam’s
indoctrinators, it will not just be the Americans and the British, but
the French, Russians and Chinese and others as well. For, according to
figures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute, between 1973 and 2002 Some
people express doubts as to whether Saddam or any other members of his
regime will receive a fair trial in Iraqi court given the current Ever
before writing this piece, I have indeed come across materials which
have Saddam videotaping the purge in the Saddam
seemed to have the idea about the brutal reprisals that would be
unleashed should he ever lose his grip on power. In the Out of the
Ashes (1999), the authors recalled a family that once complained to
Saddam that one of their members had been unjustly executed. Rather than
being apologetic about this issue, he reportedly told them, "Do not
think you will get revenge. If you ever have the chance, by the time you
get to us there will not be a silver of flesh left on our bodies."
That is, if Saddam ever becomes vulnerable, his enemies will quickly
devour him. Is Saddam not the luckier for being currently
under the custody of the occupying force? Ends
never justify means. Although Abdulsalam
Olatubosun Ajetunmobi |