Saddam wants to sue Bush

2006-01-26 14:33

Baghdad - Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer said on Thursday that the deposed Iraqi president wants US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried on allegations of committing war crimes.

Khalil al-Dulaimi said Saddam wants to sue both leaders, along with US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld for allegedly authorising the use of weapons such as depleted uranium artillery shells, white phosphorous, napalm and cluster bombs.

"We will sue Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld in The Hague for using such weapons of mass destruction," said al-Dulaimi.

No complaint has been filed to the International Criminal Court in The Netherlands, but al-Dulaimi said Saddam's foreign defence team will present it "very soon".

"President Saddam intends to bring those criminals to justice for their mass killings of Iraqis in Baghdad, Ramadi, Fallujah and Qaim and abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib," the lawyer added.

Saddam also wants all Iraqis who have had relatives killed or had property damaged to receive at least $500 000 each.

Allegations

There have been several allegations that the United States used outlawed weapons, such as napalm, in the November 2004 Fallujah offensive, but the Pentagon denied using it.

In November, the Pentagon acknowledged that US troops used white phosphorous shells as a weapon against insurgent strongholds in the same Fallujah battle, adding that they are a standard weapon and not banned by any international weapons convention to which the US is a signatory.

Use of white phosphorous is covered by Protocol III of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons, which prohibits use of the substance as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas. The United States is not a signatory to the convention.

US soldiers have also claimed they have fallen ill to exposure to depleted uranium artillery shells in Iraq, but the Pentagon has said metal does not cause ailments.

Depleted uranium is the hard, heavy metal created as a by-product of enriching uranium for nuclear reactor fuel or weapons material.

Most studies have indicated that depleted uranium exposure will not harm soldiers. But a 2002 study by Britain's Royal Society said soldiers who ingest or inhale enough depleted uranium could suffer kidney damage. It cautioned that there were too many uncertainties in the study to draw reliable conclusions.

- AP