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Saddam won't tell of WMD
15/12/2003 15:29 - (SA)
London - Britain doubts whether Saddam Hussein, now in the hands of US interrogators, will cast light on the whereabouts of his much-feared but elusive weapons of mass destruction, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Monday.
"Frankly, I'm not holding my breath for any confessional statement from Saddam Hussein," said Straw when asked if Saddam's capture could resolve the row over the weapons, which were cited as the main reason for the US-led invasion of his country.
"I think his history of mendacity is so intense and so long-lasting that he would not understand the truth if he fell over it," he told a news conference in London.
Straw also argued that Saddam should undergo a trial that is "both free and fair," and hinted that Britain would prefer that he not be executed. Lengthy interrogation
Saddam is set for lengthy interrogation following his capture on Saturday by US troops, who found him sheltering in a hole under a mud hut outside Tikrit, in northern Iraq.
His US captors will be especially keen to discover whether Saddam can lead the way to evidence of his pursuit and stockpiling of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in defiance of multiple UN sanctions.
Those weapons were the prime reason why Prime Minister Tony Blair argued, against a skeptical British public, in favour of Britain joining the US invasion of Iraq last March.
The failure of US, British and other coalition forces to uncover any illegal weapons has prompted heavy criticism from opponents of the conflict, and cost Blair dearly in public opinion polls. Trial must be free and fair
Straw said that, if Saddam stands trial in Iraq, the proceedings must be "both fair and seen to be fair".
"It is an obvious essential that any trial that takes place of any individual anywhere in the world, particularly on grave charges, should be conducted by proper principles relating to human rights and the protection of defendants," Straw said.
"Everyone understands, not least the Iraqi Governing Council, that if there is to be a trial taking place inside Iraq, it will have to be both fair and seen to be fair," he added. Death penalty
But when asked if Britain would accept the death penalty for Saddam as appropriate punishment, his reply seemed to suggest that it would prefer that he not face execution.
"So far as the appropriate level of a punishment is concerned, the position of the British government and the British parliament in respect of the death penalty is very clear," he said.
"We have abolished the death penalty here, we are opposed to the death penalty and its use in other countries, and we campaign hard to try and extend the abolition of the death penalty," he said.
But he added it was "an obvious reality" that the death penalty was used by countries such as the United States, and that "in the end, the appropriateness of the punishment is a matter for sovereign governments and for their courts".
- AFP
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