Saddam calls for resistance
15/03/2006 19:05  - (SA)  

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Baghdad - Ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Wednesday denounced his trial as a "comedy" and called on Iraqis to resist the US-led occupation, prompting the judge to order a closed session.

"I call on the people to start resisting the invaders instead of killing each other," Saddam told the Iraqi high tribunal as he began to testify on charges of crimes against humanity.

He also called those who destroy mosques "criminals" - a reference to the spasm of violence rocking the country since the destruction of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra on February 22.

"My people will never accept the occupation, it is my people who elected me in a referendum and who trusted me to lead them to safe harbour and I say to my people I remain faithful to them despite the injustices of which I am a victim," Saddam said.

Saddam said he was speaking as "the president of the republic and the commander in chief of the armed forces".

"Your rule has ended, now you are a defendant in a criminal case," chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman told him.

"This is a criminal court, we are not interested in politics," he added.

"As far as I am concerned, I take my responsibilities to the people seriously, until such a time as the people choose someone else to represent them," Saddam answered.

"It is a comedy against Saddam Hussein and his comrades," Saddam said at the start of his testimony.

"Oh mighty people, I am still your faithful son, oh Iraqi people... I am still your sword, and despite what has happened to my people, to me, to my comrades because of the criminal occupants, I shall be patient," he said.

"It's only a question of time until the sun rises and you will be victorious," he told the Iraqi people.

The judge told Saddam several times to confine his comments to the specific charges against him in the Dujail case.

Saddam countered that he was "talking with the Iraqi people" and later told the judge "if it wasn't for America, not you nor your father could drag me here".

When Saddam then embarked on another speech about the "criminals who had invaded the country on the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction" the judge ordered the session closed and cut the television transmission.

- AFP

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