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Leslie Thatcher | Kill the Messenger    [

Editor's Note: In French politics, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy - the man in charge of the French justice, intelligence and homeland security departments - is considered a conservative in his own center-right party, the Union for a Popular Movement. He is widely expected to be its presidential candidate in 2007. - ljt.

    Saddam Hussein's Execution Is a Mistake
    By Nicolas Sarkozy
    Le Monde

    Tuesday 02 January 2007

    I would have liked to greet Saddam Hussein's trial as a significant step in Iraq's democratization. Unfortunately, the execution of the former Iraqi dictator throws an event that should have been a positive one in the reconstruction of this martyred country into a bad light. First, however, I must acknowledge with satisfaction that Saddam Hussein was judged.

    I observe that the Criminal High Court is an Iraqi decision-making body, composed exclusively of Iraqi judges, the hearings of which are public. Experts and observers say, certainly quite rightly, that the arguments were conducted in a disorganized way and that the proceedings lacked dignity. Moreover, three defense attorneys were assassinated. The fact that Saddam Hussein should be judged by an Iraqi court is already a feat in itself under the circumstances into which the country is plunged. Let us remember that Iraq has only made the discovery of free elections, of a freely chosen constitution, of a coalition government, of parliamentary deliberations, and of an independent judiciary in recent months; but also, above all, let us remember that it is the scene of a particularly bloody civil war.

    The trial is also a feat because the defendant happens to be the person who subjugated his fellow citizens through murder and terror for over thirty years and whom terrorists (I, for one, cannot call people who daily let off bombs among civilians a "resistance.") still claim as their own.

    I would have liked to hail the fact that through this highly symbolic trial the Iraqi government had applied for itself those elements that essentially contribute to its sovereignty, such as an independent and professional judiciary system, or a democratic and uncorrupted police force.

    The death penalty and the execution of the convicted man prevent me from that. I am opposed to the death penalty. For me, it's a question of principle. I believe that the world must continue to make its way toward total abolition of the death penalty. And, in the present instance, even though we're dealing with one of history's great criminals, I deem that Iraq would have grown and become greater by not executing the one who had made it suffer so much. I ardently desire Iraq's stabilization. But, as I see it, the in-depth stabilization of this region can take place only through the promotion of democratic values. I hate the idea that certain peoples should be condemned to violence for no reason other than that violence is part of a multi-century, even thousand-year-old tradition. And I believe that an indispensable step in the democratization of Iraq is the abolition of the death penalty.

    Finally, I deeply deplore that Saddam Hussein, the dictator who had more blood on his hands than anyone in the world, did not have to appear and account before the law for his other crimes. I am sorry that justice was not done the Kurds, whose sufferings were unspeakable, and for whom the massacre of 5,000 civilians in the little town of Halabja in 1988 was only one monstrous event among many others. I am sorry justice was not done to the Shia, who were subjected to a barbarous repression in 1991 by the Iraqi Republican Guard - under the impassive regard, incidentally, of the international community.

    It is difficult to reconcile the different constituencies of a people at the departure of a dictatorship. But that task seems even more difficult when light is not shed on the past.

    The execution of Saddam Hussein, the worst of men, is a mistake.

    --------

    Nicolas Sarkozy is President of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

    Kill the Messenger
    By Leslie Thatcher
    t r u t h o u t | Columnist

    Thursday 04 January 2007

    It was chilling to read that a security guard at Saddam Hussein's execution has been arrested. We surely understand what it means to be "questioned," as this man reportedly is, "to see whether he acted independently or was working with others to intentionally undermine the government's desire to publicly reveal just a brief portion of the execution proceedings."

    Whoever has filmed the execution and whatever his motivation, has, I believe - contrary to international outcry over the filming and its diffusion - done a service to history and humanity. Any official acts a government, and particularly any government purporting to be "democratic," wants to keep unseen should perhaps best not be performed at all. While recording acts of barbarity - think of Abu Ghraib - may not be an intentional public service, it is the acts - not their recording and diffusion - that deserve opprobrium. And which will garner that opprobrium only if made known to the public.

    Moreover, by allowing everyone to see that the present Iraqi government was incapable of organizing a private execution that was solemn and dignified, the recorder of Saddam's hanging, has added proof - if any were needed - of that government's complete inability to govern a country.

    I suspect Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's reported desire to leave his post before the end of his term is linked to the last straw of the Bush administration's propaganda attempts to distance itself from the manner of an execution the timing of which it almost certainly approved. No honor among thieves ...