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Council must decide about bodies
31/07/2003 21:12 - (SA)
Baghdad - A coalition official said on Thursday any decision on whether to return the corpses of Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, to their relatives lay with Iraq's interim Governing Council.
"We are giving it to the Iraqi authority to make the proper decision," the coalition official said, commenting on the flurry of offers to bury the brothers, who were killed in a pitched battle with US troops on July 22 in the northern city of Mosul.
The coalition's obligation is to ensure any decision on the bodies complies with international law, the official said.
The US-led coalition had said on Sunday it would announce the burial plans within 24 hours, but later backtracked. Muslims generally bury their dead within a day of the death.
Samir Shaker Mahmud al-Sumaydi, a member of the 25-member council, said on Sunday the executive body had recommended the corpses be given to the family for burial and expected the coalition would follow the recommendation.
But a member of Saddam's family, Sheikh Mahmud al-Nada, head of the Bu Nasser tribe, told the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera that he asked the coalition for the body but had been turned down.
Uday, the sadistic playboy, and Qusay, Saddam's heir apparent, were known for their fondness for torture and came to symbolise the excesses of the old regime.
- AFP
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