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Saddam to Be Transferred to Iraqis in June
1 hour, 32 minutes ago
By LOUIS MEIXLER, Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq -
The United States has pledged to hand over Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and dozens of other suspects to Iraqi authorities by the time the U.S.-led coalition transfers power to Iraq (news - web sites) next month, the head of Iraq's war crimes tribunal said Tuesday. The Pentagon (news - web sites) disputed the report.
Salem Chalabi told reporters in Kuwait that trials would begin early next year and that judges would receive "files" on the suspects at the end of this year.
"We will put 100 people ... including Saddam Hussein, on trial," he said. The suspects, he added, "will be delivered to us by the coalition before the transfer of power," which is scheduled for June 30.
A U.S. defense department spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it has not been decided when to turn Saddam over to Iraqi authorities. Nor has it been determined when and where Saddam will be tried, but the intention remains to have him tried by the Iraqi people, the spokseman said.
U.S. officials, who are holding Saddam in an undisclosed location, have said they will turn him over to the tribunal, set up to try him and other leaders of his former government but have not given a timeframe. In April, that tribunal appointed judges and prosecutors.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his use of chemical weapons against the Kurds in the 1980s, could be one of the first to stand trial, Chalabi said.
The United States estimates that Saddam's government killed at least 300,000 Iraqis during its rule. Some human rights groups say the number is closer to 1 million.
Also Tuesday, relatives and U.S. officials said a body found on a Baghdad highway overpass was that of an American civilian contract worker missing since April 9 — the same day insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy west of the capital.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said one Russian energy company worker was confirmed dead and two others abducted Monday when gunmen fired on their car south of Baghdad. An Iraqi serving as a bodyguard and translator was wounded, said Yevgeny Loginov, spokesman for the Interenergoservis energy company.
Gunmen attacked a U.S.-run civilian convoy operated by workers hired by a subcontractor of Kellogg Brown & Root in the western desert about 230 miles west of Baghdad. A motorist said he saw six burned vehicles, including one Iraqi civilian car caught in the crossfire.
Although initial reports said some of the workers were missing and possibly abducted, Halliburton Corp. spokeswoman Wendy Hall said "to our knowledge, all drivers have been accounted for." She said the workers had been hired by a subcontractor for Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton.
U.S. officials, who are holding Saddam in an undisclosed location, have said they will turn him over to the tribunal, set up to try him and other leaders of his former government but have not given a timeframe. In April, that tribunal appointed judges and prosecutors.
No charges have yet been filed against Saddam or other suspects from his ousted regime, but human rights groups have said the tribunal expects to try leaders for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Tariq Aziz, Saddam's former deputy prime minister, also will be handed over, Chalabi said. Aziz is in U.S. custody but he is not on the U.S. "most-wanted" list and it was unclear what charges he might face.
Chalabi arrived in Kuwait on a flight from Tehran, Iran. He was visiting both countries to collect evidence against the suspects.
Saddam was captured on Dec. 13 hiding in a hole in the small farming village of Adwar, a short drive from his hometown of Tikrit.
The body found on the overpass was identified as Nick Berg, 26, of West Chester, Pa., a self-employed civilian contractor. Berg's body, with signs of trauma, was found Saturday, the military said.
The family was informed Monday of his death.
Berg's mother, Suzanne, said her son had been in Iraq doing contract work to improve the country's infrastructure and had been missing since April 9.
"He had this idea that he could help rebuild the infrastructure," she said.
April 9 also was the day that seven American contractors working for a subsidiary of Halliburton and two military men disappeared after their supply convoy was attacked on the outskirts of Baghdad. Four of the Halliburton workers and one of the military men have since been confirmed dead. Halliburton worker Thomas Hamill escaped his captors May 2 and returned home to Mississippi on Saturday. The other two Halliburton workers and the other soldier remain missing.
Two military men also vanished; one was later found dead and the other, Pfc. Keith M. Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, was taken captive and remains missing.
Anti-Western sentiment flared here following the crackdown on Shiite extremists and the three-week Marine siege of Fallujah west of Baghdad. Sentiment intensified with the publication of photos showing U.S. soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqi inmates at the
Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad.
Iraq's oil minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulloum said a weekend bombing at a southern pipeline had cut oil exports by 30 percent but he expects the exports to return to normal levels in the next several hours.
Late Monday, U.S. forces clashed with al-Sadr's gunmen in the southern city of Kufa, killing at least five Iraqis and injuring 14 others, hospital officials said.
Kufa is near Najaf, where al-Sadr took refuge last month after U.S. authorities announced they were seeking him in the assassination last year of a moderate cleric.
U.S. troops have been involved in sporadic clashes with al-Sadr's forces for weeks. But the Americans have avoided an all-out assault on Najaf to avoid inflaming Shiite passions.
The new U.S.-appointed Najaf governor said he will ask occupation authorities to defer murder charges against al-Sadr under a proposed deal to end the standoff with his Shiite Muslim militia.
Adnan al-Zurufi, who was appointed last week, proposed that the U.S.-led administration agree to delay legal proceedings against al-Sadr until after the Americans transfer power to a new Iraqi administration June 30.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a homemade bomb exploded in a crowded market killing four Iraqis and injuring 23, a security official said.
Residents of the Shiite neighborhood Sadr City on Tuesday began rebuilding the Baghdad headquarters of al-Sadr, which was destroyed in a tank and helicopter attack by U.S. forces about midnight Sunday.
Dutch officials, meanwhile, said two men have been arrested for a grenade attack that killed one Dutch soldier and wounded another in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.
The casualties Monday night were the first for the Dutch since the Netherlands sent 1,300 soldiers to participate in the U.S.-led force.
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