Shiites Clamor for Saddam to Be Executed

Shiites Clamor for Saddam to Be Executed

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Thousands of Shiite Muslims marched through Baghdad on
Tuesday clamoring for Saddam Hussein's execution in the latest show of
strength by people oppressed for decades by the former dictator.
The 5,000-strong crowd was believed to be the first public demonstration in
Iraq demanding death for Saddam since he was captured by U.S. forces Dec.
13.

The Pentagon has said Saddam is a prisoner of war and that designation will
not keep the deposed Iraqi president from standing trial before an Iraqi
tribunal.

"Saddam is a war criminal, not a POW! Execute Saddam!" the crowd chanted.

Shiites also staged a smaller protest of several hundred people in the
southern city of Najaf.

Also, thousands marched in the Shiite holy city of Karbala to demand
elections and to denounce the U.S. presence in Iraq.

The rallies were far smaller than one Monday in which nearly 100,000 Shiites
marched in the Iraqi capital demanding early, direct elections, rejecting a
U.S. blueprint for handing over power on July 1 to an Iraqi provisional
government through caucus-style elections.

Responding to the opposition, the United States asked the United Nations on
Monday to send a team to Iraq to evaluate America's position that conditions
are not ready for the direct elections demanded by influential Shiite cleric
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani.

"What we're trying to do is find a solution that will work for us and the
majority of Iraqi people and provide a legitimate way" to chose a
government, L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq, told
CNN.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was considering the American
request.

Shiites are believed to compose 60 percent of Iraq's 25 million people, but
Saddam's government favored the minority Sunni Muslim population. The regime
executed thousands of Shiites and buried many in mass graves around the
country.

"We call for the execution of Saddam the infidel, who killed our sons and
kept them in mass graves," said Karima Hanoun, 40, speaking through a black
veil at the demonstration.

Another demonstrator, 43-year-old Samira Hassan, said, "Every good Muslim
woman and every honest human being wants Saddam to be executed. How can
America make him a POW?"

Prisoner-of-war status under the Geneva Conventions grants Saddam certain
rights, and many Iraqis fear that the status will shield him from a trial in
his country. International Red Cross officials have said the conventions
would not prevent the United States from handing Saddam over to an Iraqi
tribunal, as long as a fair trial is guaranteed.

A statement by the demonstrators said Saddam should be tried by an Iraqi
court for crimes against humanity.

"We emphasize our rejection and condemnation of the unjust American
decision" to term him a prisoner of war, it said.

"Did America forget, or is [it] forgetting the screams of the children,
orphans, and the tears of women who are crying at the graves of their sons
and husbands?"

Demonstrators carried posters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, the son of a
cleric killed in 1999 by suspected Saddam agents, while marching to central
Baghdad's Firdos Square.

Protesters also voiced objections to the discussions between Iraqi leaders
about transforming Iraq into a federal state. Many Shiites and Sunnis fear
that would break up Iraq and grant virtual freedom to the northern Kurds,
another community oppressed by Saddam.

"There are problems this country is going through. This is a call from us
[Shiites] for our rights," said al-Sheik Ghaith al-Khazaal, the head of
al-Sadr's office in Baghdad.