Kurdistan Observer

Kurds welcome Saddam's Demise, Call for Trial to Continue

ARBIL, (Southern Kurdistan), Dec 30, 2006 (AFP) - The autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq welcomed Saddam Hussein's execution Saturday but said it should not be an excuse to cut short inquiries into his genocide charges against the Kurds.

The ousted dictator was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in the case of 148 Shiite men and boys killed in an act of collective punishment against the village of Dujail in the early 1980s.

But Saturday's execution also brought to an end his prosecution in a separate case in which he is charged with genocide in the deaths of around 182,000 Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign by Iraqi security forces.

Prosecutors have said the case will go ahead with Saddam's six surviving co-defendants, but that the late dictator will no longer figure in the list of the accused.

Other planned prosecutions, including one for the notorious poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988, may be dropped altogether.

"We hope that Saddam Hussein's execution will open a new chapter among Iraqis and the end of using violence against civilians," said a statement from the office of Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani.

"It is important the execution should not be a pretext for not documenting the crimes of Anfal and Halabja, and the mass killing against thousands of the Kurds and Barzanis. Curtains should not be closed on these issues."

Saddam was killed at 6:00 am Saturday (0300 GMT) by Iraqi hangmen.