Saddam and the Kurds

On Sunday, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging for the deaths of 142 Shi'ite villagers in Dujail in 1982. It seems that every community in every country reacted differently to the verdict, from the widespread criticism of the death penalty in Europe, to glee from Iraqi-Canadian ex-pats. I am not morally opposed to the death penalty, although hanging does seem an archaic means of execution. The bigger issue, I think, is that this could allow Saddam Hussein to avoid a trial over the Kurdish genocide.

For Saddam, the killing of 142 Shi'ites was by no means an isolated incident, but he killed Shi'ites randomly. He killed Kurds systematically. The al-Anfal campaign that Saddam conducted between 1986-1989 killed tens of thousands of Kurds and forced the relocation of hundreds of thousands more. He used poison gas against entire towns of Kurdish civilians. The Kurdish people deserve the right to force Saddam to sit and hear testimony from the families, wives, executioners, and everyone else affected by or involved with that wretched campaign. The Kurds deserve their day in court, and the world deserves to see a wicked man shamed once again.