UN declines to train Iraqis for Saddam trial

1.00pm

The United Nations has rejected a request from Iraqi leaders to train some 30 judges and prosecutors who would be trying former President Saddam Hussein, in part because Baghdad has the death penalty.

The request was made to Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, but UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan turned it down, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

He said del Ponte and the court were under pressure to meet target dates to complete their work and that the United Nations had no mandate to help train Iraqi judges. Judicial assistance, however, was among the tasks the world body could undertake in Iraq in previous Security Council resolutions.

Dujarric also said the request was rejected because "serious doubts exist regarding the capability of the Iraqi special tribunal to meet relevant international standards".

"The secretary-general recently stated that UN officials should not be directly involved in lending assistance to any court or tribunal that is empowered to impose the death penalty," he said in answer to questions.

Annan's position was first reported by the New York Times, which said that a week-long training session for Iraqi judges and prosecutors chosen to try Saddam and his key associates ended in London on Monday. Both Iraqis and their Western advisers agreed that Iraqis were unprepared to undertake full-fledged trials soon.

The London courses were organized by American lawyers who assist Iraqi investigators and judges in Baghdad. Britain sent legal experts to the training sessions but Iraqis were not expected to be ready to start proceedings next month as originally planned.

The United Nations is assisting in Iraqi elections, planned for January, training Iraqi elections workers in Mexico and other places outside the country, who in turn train others. Dujarric said 6000 Iraqis had completed direct or indirect training and were setting up 585 voter registration stations.

Annan has said plans for elections were technically feasible but that the decision was up to the Iraqis. "It's their call, not ours," he told reporters on Thursday.

The world body has only eight international electoral workers in Baghdad, part of the more than 30 staff housed in the capital's fortified Green Zone.

Annan pulled out international staff last October after two deadly attacks on UN offices in Baghdad. In August, a UN contingent took up residence the Green Zone, but Annan kept it small because of the violence.

He has acknowledged it will be necessary to send in more staff before the election but wants better security for them.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq