| Wondered what had happened to him. |
‘He is the hero behind the unity of Iraq and its sovereignty. This is an honour to me,’ Aziz added in a statement that belied the reputation he enjoyed in some quarters as a moderate in Saddam’s camp.
‘Shut up -- don’t speak,’ said the trial’s chief judge Mohammed Al Oreibi Al Khalifah, angrily trying to silence the ailing Aziz. ‘Why do you prevent me from speaking?’ Aziz answered calmly. ‘I will take legal measures against you,’ the judge warned. Aziz replied: ‘Why? I am already a prisoner. What would you do to me?’
| Guess. |
Aziz, 71, surrendered to US troops in Iraq in April 2003. Since then he has been under lock and key at Camp Cropper, a holding centre near Baghdad international airport. His family has repeatedly called for his release on health grounds, saying that he suffers from diabetes and respiratory problems.
| Why is that a problem? Didn't the Kurdish civilians have all sorts of medical problems before you gassed them to death? |
On Monday he was brought to the High Tribunal to give evidence against the six defendants in the Anfal trial of Saddam aides charged with involvement in the killing of up to 182,000 Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s. But Aziz denied there had been any mass killings under Saddam. ‘I was foreign minister... The government I was part of did not commit genocide against the Kurdish people,’ he insisted.
His comments again angered the judge. ‘You are here testifying (on behalf of) the regime, not the accused,’ the judge said. ‘No, I am testifying (on behalf of) the accused,’ Aziz answered.