Editorial: Saddam has to be dealt with quickly

The speed with which the interim Iraqi Government has whisked Saddam Hussein before a court was not quite what the United States had in mind. It had wanted to delay proceedings until the Iraqis set up a special court and trained a legal team.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is working to a different timetable, however. He must quickly establish himself as a tough and credible leader if his Administration is to have any chance of survival. Saddam offers the perfect opportunity for decisiveness. If that involves playing fast and loose with certain tenets of international jurisprudence, most Iraqis are hardly likely to notice.

A glance at the charges levelled against Saddam indicates why. They also show why this trial could have a cathartic effect on a people who suffered grievously during the 35 years of his tyranny. The charges relate to an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Kurds, including the gassing of villagers in Halabja, the suppression of a Shiite uprising in 1991, and the killing of political activists and religious figures. All up, one million Iraqis are thought to have perished under Saddam's regime. In addition, there is the small matter of the invasion of Kuwait, the trigger for his eventual downfall.

This catalogue of crimes against humanity makes a mockery of claims that the trial could be embarrassing to the West, and the United States, in particular. Saddam may well reveal details of military aid, especially during Iraq's bloody war against Iran's radical clerics. Yet even if the extent of that assistance, or other means of support, comes as a surprise, it must be viewed in realpolitik terms. Muslim extremism was festering throughout the region in a manner that was already causing alarm. The most extreme reaction was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Bolstering the stocks of a secular Iraq was an ultimately flawed attempt to solve the same riddle.

It is to the credit of the US that it is prepared to weather any embarrassing trial revelations, and that it knowingly increased the likelihood of this when it handed Saddam over to the Iraqis. The Bush Administration would have considered placing him before an international tribunal. That would have heightened the prospect of a fair and impartial hearing, but would also have denied the Iraqi people the chance to draw a line through Saddam's regime.

Through hearing the evidence brought against him - the trial will be broadcast live on radio and television - they will have the chance to come to terms with their brutal past and his legacy.

In all likelihood, Saddam will be sentenced to death. The interim Government, as part of its get-tough policy, has reinstated the penalty, which was suspended during the American occupation. Its exercise would be an embarrassment to Britain, an opponent of capital punishment. More significantly, there would be the risk of a backlash, particularly from Saddam's Sunni community. The popular wisdom is that such executions create martyrs. Yet such was not the case when Nicolae Ceaucescu was summarily tried and shot after a popular uprising in 1989. Saddam, in fact, has much in common with the former Romanian dictator. Both lived lavishly while their people suffered, both survived for an extraordinarily long time on cunning and connivance, and both, in the end, surrendered meekly. They also ended their rules utterly detested and discredited, except to the small minority who shared their loot or enjoyed their largesse.

Saddam knows the game is up. After his capture, he was, according to the Americans, "talkative and co-operative". Doubtless, he believed that he could somehow escape standing trial for his crimes. In the dock in Baghdad, however, he was defiant. "This is all a theatre. The real criminal is Bush," he proclaimed. He was wrong on both counts. A tyrant is being brought to justice, according to Iraq's criminal code. He can hardly complain about the fairness of it all.


Herald Feature: Iraq