Should Saddam be Executed or Exhibited in Stocks and Spit on? Shiites Debate
The Associated Press reports on the debate in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on what should be done with Saddam. Many residents of the city, which was brutally repressed during the 1990s, with thousands killed, want Saddam executed. AP says that Muqtada al-Sadr called for Dec. 13, the day of the capture of Saddam, to be “a day for national reconciliation and to rise up with a free, democratic, independent and unified Iraq. It is a shining dawn without Saddam.” But there are other opinions. One Karbala’i suggested Saddam be tortured for a year before being killed. AP reports that Cleric Jalal al-Hasnawi, who spent four years in prison and was tortured during Saddam’s rule, said: “What will make the Iraqi people happy is to see Saddam in a cage taken for tours in every province so that people can look at him and ask what they want to do with him.”
Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports that many Kurds want Saddam tried in Halabja, the scene of his horrific 1988 gas attack on civilian townspeople, which killed 5000.