KurdistanObserver.com

 Talabani: Saddam Has Confessed, Deserves '100 Deaths'

TODAYonline

Sep 8, 2005

BAGHDAD — Iraq's president said on Tuesday that Saddam Hussein had confessed to killings and other "crimes" committed during his regime, including the massacre of thousands of Kurds in the late 1980s.

President Jalal Talabani told Iraqi television that Saddam deserves to die "100 times" for his crimes.

He added he had been informed by an investigating judge that "he was able to extract confessions from Saddam's mouth" about crimes "such as executions" that the ousted leader had ordered.

Asked about specific examples, Mr Talabani, a Kurd, replied "Anfal", the codename for the 1987 to 1988 campaign which his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan maintains led to the deaths of 182,000 Kurds and the destruction of "dozens of Kurdish villages".

Those villages included Halabja, where thousands of Kurdish villagers were gassed in 1988.

Saddam — who has been in American custody since December 2003 — is due to go on trial next month before the Iraqi Special Tribunal over a 1982 massacre in a Shia village following an attempt on his life there.

Mr Talabani said of the trial: "No political decision to eliminate Saddam Hussein has been taken and the judiciary is independent. If he had fallen into our hands during the war we were waging, then we could have eliminated him, but now we have to put him on trial."

Mr Talabani is a staunch opponent of the death penalty. Last month, he refused to sign death warrants for three convicted criminals but authorised his deputy to do so instead.

"There are tonnes of documents incriminating Saddam Hussein," Mr Talabani added.

Saddam — who is going on trial with seven of his former henchmen — faces the death penalty if convicted. The trial is due to start on Oct 19, despite protestations from his lawyers that they have not been given enough time to prepare.

Meanwhile Mr Abdel Haq Alani, a legal consultant to Saddam's family, said Saddam did not mention any confession when he met his Iraqi lawyer on Monday.

"Is this the fabrication of Talabani or what? Let's not have a trial on TV. Let the court of law, not the media, make its ruling on this," Mr Alani said.