New Delhi, December 30
India today expressed “disappointment” over the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for war crimes and dubbed the event as “unfortunate”.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee articulated India’s reaction to Saddam’s execution in three sentences: “We had already expressed the hope that the execution would not be carried out. We are disappointed that it has been. We hope that this unfortunate event will not affect the process of reconciliation, restoration of peace and normalcy in Iraq.”
On December 26, hours after the Appeals Court in Baghdad had confirmed the death sentence on Mr Hussein, Ministry of External Affairs had issued a stronger statement. The MEA spokesman had then said:“It is our hope that the sentence will not be carried out and that the former President's life would be spared. We would also hope that no steps are taken which might obstruct the process of reconciliation and delay the restoration of peace in Iraq.”
Analysts feel that the Indian reaction, though on a different frequency as compared to the American position, is a bit subdued.
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Anger in Saddam’s village: Residents in the impoverished village where Saddam Hussein was born seethed with anger today at the hanging of the ousted president and said he was now a martyr in the fight against the US-backed government. “If Saddam is executed, he will be a martyr and he will enter history,” a young man in his 20s said, apparently sceptical that Saddam had in fact been hanged.
“This is a mercenary court. Iraqi people reject this court. Saddam is the legal president of Iraq. If they execute him we will rise up. We will all become a bomb,” another young man said in Awja, a village of orchards and palm groves next to the Tigris river, 150 km north of Baghdad.
— Reuters
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Bush slept as Saddam took the last walk:
US President George W. Bush came to know at 6.15 pm yesterday (5.45 am IST today) that Saddam Hussein would be executed in a few hours but was asleep when the ousted dictator was hanged, a spokesman said.
“The President concluded his day knowing that the final phase of bringing Saddam Hussein to justice was underway,” said deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel.
Asked whether that meant Mr Bush was asleep when Saddam and two former members of his regime were hanged in succession in the early morning hours of Baghdad, Stanzel replied, “That’s correct.”
Mr Bush, here on his Texas ranch to usher in 2007, would have been awakened “if there had been a departure from the plan” but “the execution went forward as planned,” Stanzel told mediapersons.
— AP
