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Iraq starts to lift curfew after Saddam verdict

06 Nov 2006 22:18:13 GMT
Source: Reuters

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A masked policeman signals for an approaching motorist to stop at a checkpoint during curfew in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, November 6, 2006. Iraq began on Monday to lift a curfew imposed to quell any insurgent backlash against the death sentence passed on Saddam Hussein, amid a wave of jubilation among his former victims and fury among diehard supporters.
REUTERS/STRINGER/IRAQ

Background

• Iraq in turmoil

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(Adds Condoleezza Rice remarks)

By Alastair Macdonald

BAGHDAD, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Iraq began on Monday to lift a curfew imposed to quell any insurgent backlash against the death sentence passed on Saddam Hussein, amid a wave of jubilation among his former victims and fury among diehard supporters.

Five more American soldiers were killed, the military announced on the eve of mid-term U.S. elections in which discontent over the Iraq war could cost President George W. Bush's Republicans control of Congress.

Italy and France urged Iraq not to execute Saddam and Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain opposed the death penalty.

But U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this was a decision for Iraq.

"It is not something for Americans or frankly for Europeans to comment on. This is something for Iraqis to decide," she told Fox News.

Mortar rounds slammed into areas around Baghdad's Green Zone, the fortified compound that was once Saddam's palace complex and now houses the courthouse where he was tried.

The prime minister's office said vehicles would be allowed back in the streets of the capital at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Tuesday. Pedestrians were free to move around again immediately.

Curfews mostly kept down violence on Sunday and Monday after the Iraqi High Tribunal convicted Saddam of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death by hanging.

But the verdict of a trial U.S. officials hoped would help heal the country has divided Iraqis, being greeted with joy by Shi'ite Muslims, who were oppressed under Saddam, but opposed by the formerly dominant Sunnis.

The Interior Ministry forced two Sunni Arab channels off the air on Sunday, saying they were inciting violence. In contrast, state television, controlled by the Shi'ite-led government, has broadcast non-stop scenes of celebration and graphic images of Saddam-era executions since the verdict was announced.

About 200 Saddam supporters demonstrated on Monday in Falluja, in western Iraq, chanting old Saddam slogans such as "We will give our blood for you." Mosul in northern Iraq also saw pro-Saddam demonstrations, as did Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Facing reverses in Tuesday's elections because of disillusion over Iraq, Bush hailed Sunday's verdict from the U.S.-sponsored Iraqi High Tribunal as a vindication.

"My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision and the world is better off for it," he said while campaigning.

Rice vehemently denied suggestions that the verdict, whose full written version will not be available for several days, was timed to help the Republican campaign.

"These are brave people who carried out this process and it is an insult to them to suggest that it was somehow timed to something American," she said.

NO HANGING YET

Italy and France said executing Saddam would be wrong.

"The execution of Saddam Hussein could push the country towards a real civil war," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told reporters after meeting French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy in Paris.

In London, Blair said Britain opposed the death penalty. But, pressed by journalists, he repeatedly declined to state whether he thought Saddam should be executed, saying it was a matter for Iraqis to decide.

An appeal against Saddam's sentence for killing, torturing and jailing hundreds of Shi'ites from the town of Dujail means no execution is likely until at least next year.

Kurds, for whose alleged genocide Saddam is due back in court on Tuesday, want their own day of judgment.

Defence attorneys said however they saw little hope from the appeal and dismissed the sentence as "victor's justice".

Leandro Despouy, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers and a long-time critic of the tribunal, said the trial did not meet international human rights principles.

In Baquba northeast of Baghdad, police said there were two dead and six wounded among pro-Saddam demonstrators when police and Iraqi troops fired on them after Sunday's ruling.

In Shi'ite areas, there was rejoicing in the streets after the verdict but rain in Baghdad dampened the mood on Monday.

Two U.S. Marines and a soldier were killed on Saturday and Sunday in western Anbar province, the military said, and two more soldiers died in a helicopter crash on Monday north of Baghdad.

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Last updated:Mon Nov 6 22:20:02 2006