Saddam unrepentant
2004-07-01 22:02
Baghdad - Frailer, but still oozing confidence, Saddam Hussein pitched insults at arch-enemy United States President George W Bush and defended his iron-fisted regime on Thursday, insisting that he remained Iraq's president.
The jailed dictator performed on the world stage for the first time since he had been caught by US soldiers, hiding in a hole, last December.
Visibly aged with dark rings under his eyes, Saddam spoke smoothly and with authority throughout the hearing, often talking down to the young judge on the Iraqi special tribunal who read the ex-president a list of seven charges.
"I am the president of Iraq and I am an Iraqi," the jailed dictator declared.
In television images beamed across the globe, he seemed no less determined than when he ruled Iraq.
Flown in by helicopter
The long-awaited hearing took place in the greatest secrecy at Camp Victory, the main US military base adjoining Baghdad's former international airport.
The toppled dictator was flown in from an undisclosed location by helicopter from where he was escorted in chains to a small building in a former palace on the compound in an armoured bus, flanked by four Humvees and an ambulance.
On arrival, he was led in chains and handcuffs into a building by two Iraqi prison guards, while six more guards stood at the door.
The shackles were taken off before Saddam stepped into the courtroom.
Saddam looked composed in video footage, released after vetting by the US military, that showed him seated on a black, cushioned chair behind a wooden railing in the courtroom facing the judge.
His distinguished look was a far cry from the bedraggled state he was in when found hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit on December 13.
Appeared unfazed by the accusations
Waving his hands, pinching his fingers together and sometimes jabbing a finger at the judge, the 67-year-old former tyrant talked expertly around a barrage of atrocities to which he has been linked.
Referring to an initial charge concerning the gassing of the Kurds in Halabja in 1988, Saddam, stroking his beard, said, "I heard about it in the media."
During the hearing, an unrepentant Saddam looked around as charges were read out against him, including the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the bloody suppression of an uprising by Iraq's Shiite majority after the Gulf War the following year.
He appeared unfazed by the accusations levelled against him and even jotted notes on occasion on a yellow jotting pad.
"Kuwait is an Iraqi territory. It was not an invasion," Saddam declared, according to the tribunal official.
Speaking in the presence of a small group of journalists and officials who were admitted to the hearing, Saddam challenged the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
No lawyers were present - an omission that prompted the former president to refuse to sign a legal document acknowledging he understood his rights.