Secret evidence at Saddam trial
2006-12-21 13:08
Baghdad - Evidence relating to Saddam Hussein's alleged use of poison gas against Kurdish civilians was given to his genocide trial in secret on Thursday, so as not to embarrass Turkey.
After seeing a string of memos issued by Saddam's chief of staff in 1988 ordering "special ammunition" attacks, the court cut off its microphones while studying documents relating to Iraq's northern neighbour.
"We will now cut the microphones because this concerns Iraqi-Turkish relations," said chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon, who then presented various documents while the sound in the reporters' box was cut off.
No details were given of the evidence presented in this part of the trial, nor was it explained how it touched on Turkey.
Saddam and six co-defendants are accused of killing 182 000 Kurds between 1987 and 1988, when government troops allegedly suppressed a Kurdish uprising by using artillery, air strikes, death camps and poison gas attacks.
They insist the so-called Anfal campaign was a legitimate counter-insurgency operation against Kurdish separatists at a time when Iraq was at war with Iran.
Turkey also opposes the Kurdish region's dream of independence, fearing that this will encourage separatist sentiment among Kurdish communities within its own borders.
Turkey has been fighting the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish east and southeast since 1984. Since then, more than 37 000 people have been killed.
Saddam was sentenced to death a month ago for his role in the execution of 148 Shi'ites in revenge for an assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail in 1982. A panel of appeal court judges is reviewing the verdict.
- AFP