Saddam Verdict Could Spark More Violence

Iraqi demonstrators hold pictures of Saddam Hussein during a pro Saddam rally in al-Dour city, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005. The trial of Saddam Hussein was intended to heal a fractured Iraq: exposing the crimes of his regime in a court of law, so Iraqis could come to terms with their past and move forward _ united as a people. A verdict is expected Sunday Oct. 29, 2006. (AP Photo / Hameed Rasheed) (Hameed Rasheed - AP)

Instead of healing old wounds, the two trials have widened the gulf between Iraq's ethnic and religious groups at a time when sectarian reprisal killings are spinning out of control.

Many Iraqis appear weary of the drawn-out proceedings. Even though Iraqi and American authorities had promised long before his capture in December 2003 to put him on trial, public opinion tends to believe the proceedings are intended to distract attention from failures to restore order and build a functioning government.

"In the beginning we were all enthusiastic to watch the trial," said Mohammed Jassim, a Shiite who fled Iraq for Egypt and follows the proceedings on Arabic satellite TV stations. "Now it has become really unbearable to watch... They are airing it to hide all the murder, plunder and sectarian strife going on in the country."

Some Sunnis also suspect the trial is an act of vengeance by Saddam's U.S., Shiite and Kurdish enemies and that a death sentence is inevitable _ as will be the backlash.

"I think that the execution of Saddam will have grave consequences," said Osama Abdul-Rahman, 22, a Sunni college student in Baghdad. "By issuing the verdict, the Americans want to frighten Arab leaders who would face the same fate if they stood up against America."

Many Shiites, however, believe Saddam should have been hanged soon after he was captured in a hole near Tikrit.

"The trial of the tyrant really pleased us," said Shiite laborer Mohammed Swadi al-Zamili, 41, whose brother was executed in 1994. "What we want is for him to be hanged by Iraqi hands, and we will not accept anything less."

Such polarization is not the reaction American officials were hoping for as they worked with Iraqis for two years after the invasion to prepare for a trial _ including gathering evidence and training Iraqis.

Dujail, 40 miles north of Baghdad, was selected for the first trial because it was considered the easiest to prosecute, even though the number of people killed pales compared with the crackdown on the Kurds or the suppression of a Shiite uprising of 1991.

But the trial was chaotic from the start.

One defense lawyer was kidnapped and murdered the day after the opening session. Two more were assassinated before the five-judge panel adjourned July 27 to consider its verdict.

And Saddam turned the proceedings into a political forum _ lambasting the judges as lackeys of the Americans and appealing to Iraqis to defy the U.S. occupation.

The first judge resigned only three months into the trial after Shiite politicians complained that he was too lenient with Saddam _ a move Human Rights Watch branded as "nothing less than an attack on judicial independence." Then the replacement judge was criticized by Saddam's supporters as too strict.

Iraqi officials telecast the proceedings as a sign of transparency. That strategy may have backfired because many Iraqis appear turned off by the courtroom turmoil, which raised doubts about fairness.

"This is a plot by the Shiite government," said Mazen Mahmoud, a Kurd who fled Baghdad for the Kurdish-ruled area in the north. "The whole trial is rigged."

Whatever opportunity the trial presented to heal the nation's wounds was drowned out in the wave of Sunni-Shiite killings, which began soon after Saddam's fall but surged after the bombing of a Shiite shrine in February.

Both communities feel under siege from insurgents, militias and death squads. That may have bolstered Saddam's image among his fellow Sunnis, willing to trade the chaos of democratic Iraq for the security of authoritarian rule.

___

Robert H. Reid, an Associated Press correspondent at large based in Amman, Jordan, has reported frequently from Iraq since 2003.