Saddam resists trial

Downcast but defiant, Iraq's former dictator Saddam Hussein appeared before an Iraqi judge yesterday, questioning his authority and saying the "real criminal" was US President George W. Bush.

Saddam was read seven charges that may lead to formal indictment for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

"I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq," he repeated, before grilling the unnamed young judge about his authority.

Video footage of the 67-year-old Saddam, his face worn and deeply lined with heavy bags under the eyes, was broadcast around the world soon after his 30-minute court appearance.

He was wearing a dark grey pinstriped jacket and a white formal shirt, and had a trimmed, mostly grey beard. It was the first public view of Saddam since he appeared wildly unkempt in photographs and videotape shot after his capture in December.

Saddam refused to recognise that he was guilty of a crime in invading Kuwait in 1990, jabbing his finger towards the judge and saying: "I'm surprised you're charging me with that as an Iraqi when everyone knows that Kuwait is part of Iraq."

The judge told him these were legal procedures, but Saddam interrupted him: "Law, what law?" he asked.

"You are putting Saddam on trial when the Kuwaitis said they could buy Iraqi women for 10 dinars on the street. The Iraqi soldiers went to defend the honour of Iraq, so what right do these dogs have?" he said, drawing a reprimand from the judge.

"This is all a theatre," Saddam said with a half-smile. "The real criminal is Bush."

The White House said Saddam would face the justice he denied his people and brushed aside his assertion about Bush.

Saddam arrived in a US helicopter at a military base and was then driven in an armoured bus to the makeshift courtroom in one of his former palaces near Baghdad international airport.

Two burly Iraqi guards escorted him into the courthouse where his chains were removed. His handcuffs were taken off inside the courtroom itself, where he sat facing cameras.

The arraignment was the first step towards a trial which could help Iraq come to terms with 35 years of Baath party brutality, though it may not start for many months.

Apart from the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the preliminary charges against Saddam referred to the suppression of Kurdish and Shi'ite revolts after the 1991 Gulf War, poison gas attacks and other massacres of Kurds, the killing of religious leaders in 1974 and the killing of political figures over three decades.

Hearing the charge that he ordered the gassing of thousands of Kurds in an attack at Halabja in 1988, Saddam shrugged it off, saying he had heard of the incident through the media. The proceedings took place at Camp Victory, a US base near the main airport, where the US military is thought to have held the former president in solitary confinement at a high-security detention centre known as Camp Cropper.

Similar hearings were held later for 11 of his former aides, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, Saddam's half-brothers and Hassan Ali al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged role in using poison gas on Kurds and Iranians.

The US military handed the 12 men over to Iraqi legal custody on Wednesday, two days after Iraq's interim government regained sovereign powers, but will continue to guard them.

Without a lawyer to represent him, Saddam refused to sign a statement acknowledging he had been charged and read his rights.

One foreign lawyer hired by Saddam's wife to represent him said the absence of a defence attorney breached Saddam's rights.

Told by the judge that counsel would be provided later if he could not pay for his own, Saddam offered a sardonic reply: "Everyone says, the Americans say, I have millions of dollars stashed away in Geneva. Why shouldn't I afford a lawyer?"

Other foreign lawyers said Saddam could not get a fair trial in Iraq. One said he should face an international tribunal.

Many Iraqis want him executed, though some say that is too merciful: "They should put Saddam in a cage and send him around the world in a travelling zoo," said shopkeeper Samir Majid.

Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid al-Bayati said "the regime that committed the most terrible crimes in the world" was now on trial. "I think the Iraqi people will be satisfied with the death penalty and no less than that," he said.

Kuwait reiterated its call for Saddam to be executed: "Saddam's remarks today are the biggest evidence of megalomania," Information Minister Mohammad Abulhasan said.

Iraq's interim government is considering restoring the death penalty, suspended during the US-British occupation.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi wants to show Iraqis the occupation is really over, despite the presence of US-led foreign troops, and to prove it can curb violence.

The multinational force in Iraq is now commanded by US General George Casey, who took over from Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez yesterday, a US military spokesman said.

A US Marine was killed west of Baghdad, the military said, bringing the American combat death toll to at least 633.

One soldier from the multinational force was killed and two wounded by a roadside bomb near the northern city of Mosul.

A Finance Ministry official was wounded and two of his staff were killed by a bomb planted in their convoy in Baghdad.

Four Iraqi bodyguards were killed in Samarra when insurgents attacked the house of a government official after US troops withdrew to let Iraqi forces take over the town, witnesses said.