IRAQ: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is buried in his hometown a day after been executed for crimes against humanity

Record ID: 169149

  • Title: IRAQ: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is buried in his hometown a day after been executed for crimes against humanity
  • Date: 1st January 2007
  • Summary: (BN09) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (DECEMBER 31, 2006) (AGENCY POOL) AL-FERDOUS SQUARE, BAGHDAD
  • Embargoed: 16th January 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAAFBUF5235Q6R8I08FV7FCNBWN
  • Story Text: Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's body was buried in his native village of Awja near Tikrit in northern Iraq on Sunday (December 31), a day after being executed for crimes against humanity.
    Mobile phone footage of the execution was anonymously posted on the internet on Saturday (December 30).
    The shaky, grainy video -- that was first broadcast on al-Jazeera Television -- shows the former Iraqi president standing on the metal gallows as spectators gathered below seconds before his dawn hanging.
    He can be seen standing calmly as people below shouted "Go to Hell" and the name of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, even laughing and shouting unintelligible responses.
    Al-Iraqiya Television broadcast footage of Saddam's body being handed over to the chief of the former Iraqi president's tribe -- the Albu Nasir -- and officials from the Salahuddin province around Tikrit on the night of Saturday/ Sunday (December 30 and 31).
    The leader of the Albu Naser tribe Sheikh Ali al-Nida, the governor of the Salahuddin province Hamad Homoud, and the deputy governor Abdullah Hussein signed documents confirming that they would transport the body of the deposed president for immediate burial in his hometown of Awja near Tikrit.
    Officials said it was flown during the night from Baghdad to Tikrit on a U.S. military helicopter.
    The governor of the local Salahuddin region told Reuters he attended the funeral, which began at 3:05 a.m. (0005 GMT) and lasted about 25 minutes. Also present was Ali al-Nida, head of Saddam's Albu Nasir tribe.
    A source close to Saddam's family also confirmed his remains were interred at Awja, where his sons Uday and Qusay, killed by U.S. troops in 2003, lie in a family plot in the cemetery. The family had said on Saturday (December 30) it wanted him buried in the western city of Ramadi, another stronghold of the Sunni insurgency.
    The sense of loss felt by members of Saddam's tribe was met with jubilation by both the Iraqi government and large segments of the Iraqi Shi'ite community.
    Leader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, congratulated Iraqis on the execution of Saddam during prayers marking the first day of Eid al-Adha in Baghdad on Sunday.
    Worshippers also sat beneath a banner reading: 'With Saddam's execution, stability and security will prevail.'
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