Sinking into the abyss...

The execution of Saddam Hussain’s brother and associate, while in the line of justice and societal retribution for crimes against it, has left a foul taste in the mouth, leaving much to be desired with regards to the propriety of the act, and the manner in which it was conducted.

While Mr. Hussain had been executed in a somewhat humane manner, the heckling and the video-shooting of the entire charade leaves a lot to be desired from the new Iraqi disposition. I mean, this man was accused of having inhumanely killed people, of having massacred entire villages, and his alternative, the system that claims to be his alternate, has reduced his death to a similarly callous exercise in the dispensation of ‘justice’. I have always been of the opinion that while a man may be punished with the death penalty for his crimes against humanity, this death must be as dignified as possible to avoid any chances of his death/execution being seen by his supporters as a cause to rally around. And this is precisely what the Iraqi provisional government has ended up doing, maybe not by intention, but by sheer negligence.

The Shias, the Kurds, and other ethnic minorities in Iraq may have had a lot to hate Saddam Hussain and his acolytes, but they must be mindful that they have to co-exist with a resentful Sunni population. It isn’t that Saddam was always the icon of the Sunnis; on the contrary, Saddam’s modernizing ways often alienated even his own Sunni people. But when toppled, Saddam became an icon for the Sunnis, a sort of standard under which they could unite.

And executing him in the manner in which he was executed did nothing to dispel such notions of martyrdom. If anything, Hosni Mubarak was right when he said that the Iraqi government has made a martyr out of Saddam by way of his execution, a martyr that both the Americans and their allies could well have done without. Vengeance and retribution are all well and good, but reason must prevail over the need to seek vengeance. Had the Iraqi government waited until the fires had cooled, had it chosen to first prosecute Saddam and his associates for all their crimes, and not just for one single crime committed against the Shia Arabs, it stood a chance of showing the world that this isn’t a Shia-dominated government, caring only to deliver to the Shias the power that had been denied to them in the decades under Saddam. It could have assuaged the fears amongst the Sunnis that this is a sectarian state, acting on the whims and fancies of an occupying force. It could have stabilized the nation, and shown Saddam as the perpetrator of evil, and not the victim, as he is now being made out to be.

And now the insensitive executions of Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar may just prove to be the proverbial tipping-point for the Sunnis. Somehow now, the future of Iraq seems in definite peril, and perhaps only divine providence can prevent the creation of a Balkans-like situation.

The end of a chapter...and the beginning of another

In my earlier blog on the Jessica Lal case verdict, I had said that justice should be deemed served only when the victims feel a sense of closure. Saddam Hussein, the erstwhile autocrat of Iraq, has been executed by hanging today. For a defender of capital punishment, this should be time to shut up and sit quietly, but then common men rarely keep quiet; it’s just that their voice is rarely ever heard.

Saddam Hussein had been credited by some of his supporters for modernising Iraq, and for having kept fundamentalist Islamic forces at bay by enforcing a uniformly secular policy in Iraq. This is all good, really, but I fear not enough to justify massacring innocent people, just because someone from their community tried to kill you. You may have been the symbol of Arab pride against invading American armies, but your conduct towards your fellow Arabs was never exemplary in the first place.

Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, who passed away recently, also was credited by his supporters to have ensured that Chile emerged as the most developed economy in South America during his regime. But they don’t mention the countless thousands who simply went missing, just because they dared to oppose his excesses at times. That a ruler makes your life a pleasure doesn’t entitle him to taking it, if you should start asking him questions. A ruler is at best a symbol of the people, to govern their land at their behest, no more.

Saddam’s trial may have been a farce, considering its speed, and the manner in which it was conducted, but that doesn’t still refute one major point. No matter when Saddam would have been brought to trial, no matter by whom, in front of a tribunal appointed by the occupying American-British forces or by a democratically elected government, the verdict would have been exactly the same. His crimes were too explicit, too open to be denied, too horrible to be pardoned or to be given any sentence other than death. That this execution may smack of victor's justice is coincidental, not integral to the sentence.

And it would seem that no one in Iraq was even trying to. Maybe that is why Saddam in his last testament seemed resigned to his fate, and although he did lament his unfair trial, he advised his people not to hate, not even those who had hanged him, for hate blinds one to reason and makes one unfair. A poignant statement and perhaps a wise choice of words.

His victims and their families may now start the process of rebuilding their lives. They can now try to forget those scars which his regime forced on them, because now nothing would be served by them continuing to remember them. Let his final words, his advice to his people, be his legacy, and may it be taken seriously, so that Iraq returns to its former state, as a pristine nation, the jewel in the sand.