Crimes of Saddam Hussein

Felicia Whatley

Crimes of Saddam Hussein

            Saddam Hussein, an idolizer of Joseph Stalin—the oppressor- issued a memo that anyone who conflicted with the ideals of Baath Party would be executed. This isolated the Kurds a Shiite Muslims. He was unofficially the leader of Iraq by the mid 1970s where once in power, he became a mass murder.

            Saddam viewed ethnic cleaning of the Kurds from the north and northeast important because he felt them to be a threat to Iraq’s survivial. The ethnic cleansing of the Kurds was one of his high priorities as leader of Iraq.

            The Baath Party, dominated by Sunni Muslims, made up one-third of the population. The rest of Iraq was Shiite, which is the official religion of Iran. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, Saddam worked on eliminating Shiites.

            In the Dujail Massacre of 1982, Saddam caught word of Shiite Muslim militants’ assassination attempt. He retaliated by ordering the slaughter of 148 residents of Dujail which included many children.

            In 1983 the Barzani Clan abductions occurred. An ethnic Kurdish group known as the Kurdistan Democratic Party was led by Masoud Barzani fought against the Baathi oppression. After some of the conflicts in the Iraq-Iran War, Hussein had eight-thousand members of the Barzani Clan abducted. It is thought that they were murdered-women and children included-were found is mass graves in southern Iraq.

            The Al-Anfal genocidal campaign of 1986-1989 is thought to be the worst human rights abuse led by Saddam Hussein. Hussein’s administration ordered that “every living thing, human or animal, in Kurdish north be exterminated,” stated Tom Head “The War Crimes of Saddam Hussein”.  Over 182,000 people were killed through the use of chemical warfare. The Halabja poison gas in 1988 killed over 5,000 people. He blamed it on the Reagan administration.

            Hussein did not just target the Kurds, he also attacked the Shiite Marsh Arabs in southeastern Iraq. They are descendants of the Mesopotamians, an ancient people. He destroyed these people by ruining 95 percent of this region’s marsh lands. By destroying the food supply he minimized these people from 250,000 to 30,000 due to starvation and migration.

            After Operation Desert Storm the post uprising massacres of 1991 occurred when the Kurds and Shiites rebelled against Hussein’s regime.  There is an unknown number that was murdered but at one look there was as many as 2,000 Kurdish people were killed a day. Many fled to Iran and Turkey through dangerous mountains—many dying in the process.

            “Our quarrel is with Saddam, not the Iraqi people. They deserve better. Iraq is a country with a very talented population, a country that is potentially rich and successful. We want to welcome it back into the international community. We want the people to be free to live fulfilling lives without the oppression and terror of Saddam,” stated Prime Minister Tony Blair, TUC Conference 10 September 2002.

            Torture was a way of life for Saddam and his regime. He controlled the security services and a big party. Saddam was the head of state, head of government, and leader of Iraq’s only political party and head of the armed forces. He also presided over the Revolutionary Command Council which overrode all state institutions. This power gave him the authority to punish people who conflicted against his ideals. Saddam is known to have implemented severe punishments including amputation, branding, cutting off of ears, or other forms of mutilation for criminal offenses.

            According to Amnesty International report of August 2001, “torture is used systematically against political detainees. The scale and severity of torture in Iraq can only result from the acceptance of its use at the highest level.”

            There is evidence that the Iraqi regime tortured children. A BBC correspondent named John Sweeney was targeted because of a story he reported about Ali, a worker of Saddam’s son Udayy who was assassinated. After the assassination, Sweeney’s wife and child were tortured. Sweeney’s daughter’s feet were nearly crushed, and two years later when Sweeney felt is was safe he checked in on his family and his daughter was still hobbling.

            Saddam Hussein was tried for some of these crimes and more including the invasion of Kuwait where there was a huge environmental disaster of burning oil wells. Saddam’s crimes to humanity led to his demise and execution. He was known for torturing and murdering thousands of his own people.  The capturing of Saddam and the toppling of his evil regime, was a step in the right direction for human rights.

Rosenberg, Jennifer “Top 5 Crimes of Saddam Hussein”  http://history1900s.about.com/od/saddamhussein/a/husseincrimes.htm

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London. Saddam Hussein: crimes and human rights abuses. Nov 2002.

Head, Tom “The War Crimes of Saddam Hussein” http://civilliberty.about.com/od/internationalhumanrights/p/saddam_hussein.htm