Family burial for Saddam
Sunday, 31 Dec 2006 18:05
Iraqi state television broadcast images of the moments leading up to Saddam Hussein's execution and his dead body
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, executed yesterday for crimes against humanity, has been buried in his home village north of Baghdad, his family have claimed.
Defying earlier predictions that the 69-year-old's body would be interred in an unmarked grave, he has been buried in his family's plot in Awja, Tikrit, next to his sons Uday and Qusay, who were killed at the start of the present conflict by US-led coalition forces.
Saddam was hanged yesterday at 06:00 local time (03:00 GMT) in the Iraqi capital over his involvement in the massacre of 148 Shia Muslim men from Dujail in 1982.
The sentence was carried out days after his court appeal was rejected and hours after he was handed over to Iraqi authorities by the US.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani did not sign the dictator's death warrant, choosing instead to transfer his authority to prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.
In a statement, Mr al-Maliki said: "Justice, in the name of the people, has carried out the death sentence against the criminal Saddam, who faced his fate like all tyrants, frightened and terrified during a hard day which he did not expect."
The execution, attended by a Sunni Muslim cleric, was filmed by the Iraqi government, with footage since broadcast on state television. The images show an unhooded Saddam mutely standing by the gallows, as well as his final moments.
But unofficial footage taken by a mobile phone and since posted on the internet shows a more verbose Saddam responding in kind to taunts from his executors and citing verses from the Qur'an as the noose is placed round his neck.
Responding to yesterday's execution, George Bush said that a "difficult year" for the US army had been brought to an end, but he claimed that Saddam's death would not signal a close to the sectarian violence that has blighted the country since the dictator was toppled.
The president did however go on to say that the execution represented an "important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the war on terror".
Mr Bush reiterated that the former dictator had received the fair trial he denied people under his rule, concluding that: "We are reminded today of how far the Iraqi people have come since the end of Saddam Hussein's rule - and that the progress they have made would not have been possible without the continued service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform."
Other Arab and Middle Eastern countries have reacted disapprovingly to yesterday's execution, with leaders uncomfortable with the sentence being carried out during the Muslim festival of Eid.
British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett meanwhile said that Saddam had been "held to account".
But ultimately the execution of Iraq's former leader has done and will continue to do little to stem the tide of sectarian violence, with 31 people dying yesterday in southern Kufa following a bomb attack upon civilians at a market.