VARIOUS: Demonstrations in the Middle East to condemn the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein

Record ID: 1519236

  • Title: VARIOUS: Demonstrations in the Middle East to condemn the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein
  • Date: 6th January 2007
  • Summary: (W3) AMMAN, JORDAN (JANUARY 5, 2006) (REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING BANNER AT STARTING POINT OF DEMONSTRATION BANNER READING: "WE DEMAND THE EXECUTION OF MALIKI AND HIS MEN WHO ARE TRAITORS TO THE ARAB NATION AND RELIGION" DEMONSTRATORS SURROUNDING TRUCK WITH MEN HOLDING PICTURES OF SADDAM HUSSEIN AND CHANTING PICTURES OF SADDAM HUSSEIN ON TRUCK TOP VIEW OF DEMONSTRATION MAN CHANTING SLOGANS SUPPORTING SADDAM AND HIS SONS THROUGH LOUD SPEAKER
  • Embargoed: 21st January 2007 09:12
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA53Z4LCSQH5DLJG61KRY3Z160K
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Thousands of Jordanians belonging to the opposition took to the streets after prayers on Friday (January 5) to condemn the execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
    The demonstrators carried posters and banners condemning the execution along with pictures of Saddam Hussein, while chanting anti - American slogans.
    "This demonstration condemns the crime and execution of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein especially since it took place following an unfair trial from the occupation which aimed to humiliate the Arab nation. We also want to commend the proud stance the leader Saddam took while confronting his death which reflected the values of the believers, and the resistors. We are also condemning the occupation in Iraq and those who assist the occupation," Jamil Abu Bakir, member of the Islamic Action Front said.
    The protesters also criticised the Shi'ite dominated Iraqi government for their co-operation with American forces in Iraq and for the taunting of Saddam Hussein which took place on the gallows.
    "All sectors of the Jordanian population went out to express their rejection of what happened and to portray solidarity with the honourable resistance in Iraq and to reject the Iranian, Sufi, Farsi, stance in Iraq and their co-operation with the American occupation which we reject in Jordan," Khalil Attiyeh, an independent member of parliament said.
    Saddam was hanged on Saturday December 30 by the Iraqi government following a conviction in November of crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ite villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982.
    The Iraqi interior ministry has opened an investigation over a video of Shi'ite officials mocking Saddam on the gallows, which has hardened perceptions of Shi'ite triumphalism among Sunni Arabs and discomfited the United States. Officials said a number of guards had been detained as part of a government probe into who filmed and leaked the video.
    The images, which show observers yelling "Go to hell" and chanting the name of a radical Shi'ite cleric before Saddam falls through the trap, has inflamed sectarian passions in a country on the brink of sectarian civil war.
    Although the Interior Ministry's investigation has so far centred on the guards, it could implicate senior government officials present at the execution, dealing a further blow to Maliki's calls for national reconciliation.
    A similar demonstration was held in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
    The demonstrators who marched in Tarek el Jadidah area in central Beirut , carried posters and banners condemning the execution along with pictures of Saddam , while chanting anti - American slogans.
    The protesters also criticised the Shi'ite dominated Iraqi government for the taunting of Saddam Hussein which took place on the gallows.
    Many Arabs have criticised Saddam's execution which they call an insult to the Arab and Muslim world.
    Several hundred Palestinians staged a mock funeral in the West Bank town of Nablus to mourn Saddam's death.
    They held posters bearing Saddam's image and waved Iraqi flags as they marched through the streets of the old city of Nablus.
    A mock coffin wrapped in Iraqi flag was carried by a crowd of men chanting pro-Saddam slogans.
    Gunmen fired their rifles in the air, while others held Iraqi and Palestinian flags.
    Saddam's vowed support for the Palestinians, and his Scud missile attacks on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, had won him wide backing in the Palestinian territories.
    "The martyrs of all martyrs and Arabs, the great hero martyr Saddam Hussein," said a member of the Palestinian militant group 'Knights of the Night'.
    Saddam was brought to burial at his at the village of Awja on Sunday (December 31). A U.S. military helicopter transferred the body from the town of Tikrit, Saddam's former power base, to the village, where a small group of local officials and tribal leaders attended the burial procession.
    Three decades after Saddam established his personal rule by force, his death closes the chapter in Iraq's history marked by war with Iran and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait that turned him from ally to enemy of the United States and impoverished his oil-rich nation.
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