Saddam supporters vow revenge
2006-12-27 17:31
Amman - Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party threatened on Wednesday to retaliate if the ousted Iraqi leader was executed, warning in an internet posting that it would target United States interests anywhere.
The statement appeared on a Web site known to represent the Ba'ath, which was disbanded after US-led forces overthrew Saddam in 2003.
The site is believed to be run from Yemen, where a number of exiled members of the party are based.
On Tuesday, Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal against a conviction and death sentence for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in Dujail, northern Iraq, in 1982.
The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.
'Determined to retaliate'
The statement read: "Our party warns again of the consequences of executing Mr President and his comrades.
"The Ba'ath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means and everywhere, to harm America and its interests if it commits this crime," referring to Ba'ath fighters as "the resistance".
"The American administration will be held responsible for any harm inflicted on the president because the United States is the decision-maker (in Iraq) and not the puppet Iraqi government."
The statement said that if the execution took place, it would be impossible for the Ba'ath to take part in any prospective negotiations with US and Iraqi officials to reduce the violence in Iraq.
Saddam's defence lawyers, based in Amman, called on Arab governments and the United Nations to intervene to stop the execution.
'In the name of democracy'
"Otherwise, all may be participating in what is going on, either actually or due to their silence in face of the crimes, which are being committed in Iraq in the name of democracy," the lawyers said in a statement in English that was e-mailed to the Associated Press bureau.
The statement, signed by "the defence committee for president Saddam Hussein," said the court's rejection of Saddam's appeal was part of the "continued shedding of pure Iraqi blood by the current regime in Iraq, which (is) directly connected with the American occupation."
- AP