Vancouver, BC
www.mawovancouver.org

On December 30th, 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging in an Iraq occupied by 150,000 US troops. This death sentence was handed down on November 5th, after an illegitimate and flawed trial. The trial was a farce and a spectacle. Three judges were dismissed in this trial for being too mindful of the rights of Saddam. Three of the defense lawyers were assassinated. The final leg of the trial left the defendant with no lawyer at all (except for a court appointed lawyer which he refused). The trial itself was focused on the execution of a group of relatively isolated assassination-conspirators which Saddam ordered. It drew all attention away from the much more revealing massacres carried out with US and UK knowledge and support – such as the war imposed on Iran in 1980 that resulted in more than one million deaths, the mass murders of Iraqi Kurds in 1982, the carpet bombing of army deserters in 1983, the 1988 massacre of Kurds in Halabja, or the massacre of Kurds and Shi’ia Iraqis in 1991, all with US-supplied planes, helicopters and bombs. Now, as of the early hours of December 30th, justice for these US/UK-backed crimes will follow Saddam Hussein to the grave.

This was not a trial carried out by the efforts of Iraqi people. As such, this was not a punishment carried out by the Iraqi people. Not only has the US-led occupation stolen the sovereignty of Iraq, it has also denied the Iraqi people their right to realize justice for the crimes of Saddam Hussein. Less than 24 hours after the execution, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many other human rights and civil rights organizations condemned this flawed and corrupt trial.

The US has tried to justify this execution as being the removal of the root of evil in Iraq, and a step to the liberation of Iraqi people. In reality the execution is the removal of a former US-puppet who carried out massacres and atrocities with the intelligence, funding, and direct support of various US administrations. The execution of Saddam by the US was the punishment for a disobedient servant, carried out by his master.

The root of evil – of destruction, suffering, humiliation, poverty, occupation and death – in Iraq is not in the hands of one man. The US/UK occupation of Iraq has brought the deaths of more than 655,000 Iraqis. It has brought the death of nearly 3300 occupation soldiers, 3000 of those US. It has brought the greatest injustices to the Iraqi people. For three years now, the US has had Saddam (“the root of all evil”) in jail, and still life has worsened for Iraqis. On Dec 29th, a poll was released by Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies stating that 90% of Iraqis surveyed said that life was better under Saddam than it is today under US/UK occupation. By what logic can the US claim that life will improve for Iraqis all because now Saddam has made the journey from a jail cell to a grave?!

The only way that Iraqis can realize justice against the crimes of Saddam Hussein, would be through a sovereign trial, in a sovereign court, in a sovereign country. Then Iraqi people would have the just opportunity to expose his record of crimes. And only then could the Iraqi people expose the depths of US collaboration in these crimes. Furthermore, true justice can only be realized if the Iraqi people could demand the trial and sentencing of not only one little Saddam, but every US leader who has Iraqi blood on their hands. The Iraqi people could not only sentence the Iraqi President, but also President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who themselves stand on the bones of more than 655,000 Iraqis - and counting.

Mobilization Against War & Occupation (MAWO) condemns the execution of Saddam Hussein as a corrupt maneuver by the imperialist occupation to lay all of the crimes into Saddam’s hands alone. We condemn the brutal, illegitimate and illegal occupation-run court that handed down this sentence. We stand in solidarity with Iraqi people. We stand in solidarity with their demand for self-determination and their right to justice - not only against Saddam, but against the decades of US and UK-backed atrocities against them. Ultimately, no justice will ever be realized in Iraq until the end to the US/UK war and occupation. US/UK OUT OF IRAQ! SELF-DETERMINATION FOR IRAQ NOW!