More Than Hussein Is on Trial
BAGHDAD — In a country more bloodied now than at the time of his capture, Saddam Hussein is set to appear in court next week for a trial that could become either a milestone in a democratic transformation or a new source of crippling strife.
The five trial judges sit on a special Iraqi court organized and financed by the Bush administration to bring the deposed president and his closest collaborators to justice. But this is not the case Washington wanted to start with.
U.S. officials had advised the judges on the fledgling court to try a "test case" against underlings before putting Hussein on the stand. Urged by Iraqi leaders to move more swiftly, investigative judges chose instead to include Hussein along with seven aides in the court's first trial.
The conflicting pressures on the Iraqi Special Tribunal reflect deep uncertainties about how to proceed with the notorious prisoner 22 months after his capture. With the country torn since his ouster by an insurgency targeting Iraq's elected leaders and 140,000 U.S. troops, much more is at stake than the fate of one man.
Many Iraqis say they look forward to the trial, but the clamor is not universal. Through his lawyer, Hussein is trying to have it delayed. Some Iraqis revere him as a father figure, illegally deposed and humiliated. Others would rather see him summarily executed.
The proceedings, scheduled to start Wednesday in a heavily guarded courtroom in Hussein's former presidential palace complex, are the first of what could be more than a dozen trials, each covering a separate alleged atrocity and carrying a maximum sentence of death by hanging. The first case deals with the alleged revenge executions of 148 residents of a village where the dictator had dodged an assassination attempt.
For Iraq's people, the trials could produce a thorough accounting of crimes attributed to his Sunni Muslim Arab-led regime. But they also risk handing the defendant a televised platform to inspire the largely Sunni insurgency.
For the Bush administration, which found no weapons of mass destruction after ousting Hussein, a string of successful prosecutions could help it defend the decision to invade Iraq by focusing attention on the dictator's alleged atrocities.
For the Iraqi government, dominated by Kurds and Shiite Muslims whose people suffered most during Hussein's 24 years in power, short-term goals are paramount. Iraqi leaders say they hope the first trial will satisfy demands for justice by a beleaguered citizenry during an election season and end with his execution, an outcome they say would deflate the insurgency.
