|
$25m for Saddam crime victims
26/05/2004 13:28 - (SA)
Baghdad - The US overseer in Iraq, Paul Bremer, unveiled on Wednesday a $25m fund to compensate victims of crimes committed by Saddam Hussein's ousted regime.
"I have created a special task force for compensation of victims of the previous regime. For an initial endowment, I have set aside $25m," Bremer told a Baghdad news conference.
"This will certainly not be a sufficient sum to compensate Saddam's victims, but it is a beginning" he added.
The head of the Iraqi Bar Association, Malik Dohan al-Hassan, has been appointed chairperson of the task force and will submit a report by August 1 to Iraq's interim sovereign government on how the fund should be managed, he said.
During Saddam's 24 years in power, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed, tortured, raped or sacked from their jobs for any hint of opposition to his ruling Baath party.
Saddam has been in US custody since he was captured last December and is to be tried at an unspecified date along with other members of his toppled regime by an Iraqi Special Tribunal.
- AFP
|
News
