Because the United States backed Hussein in his atrocities are we to be considered an accomplice? #msg-3474163
REUTERS 6:14 a.m. July 2, 2004
TEHRAN, Iran – Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein should be prosecuted for alleged crimes against Iran during a 1980-88 war in which the United States backed Iraq, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said Friday. Saddam was told by an Iraqi judge in Baghdad Thursday that he would face charges relating to seven alleged crimes committed over three decades.
They related to his invasion of Kuwait in 1990, suppressing uprisings by Kurds and Shi'ites after the 1991 Gulf war, ethnic cleansing of Kurds in 1987-88 and gassing Kurdish villagers in 1988 but no mention was made of the 1980-88 war against Iran.
No reason was given as to why the Iran-Iraq war, in which nearly 1 million people from both sides died, was omitted.
"Why Saddam faces charges regarding several months of Kuwait occupation but not for the eight-year Iran-Iraq war?" Rafsanjani asked in a Friday prayers sermon in Tehran broadcast.
"The Iraqi court should review Saddam's crimes against Iran ... if not, it is because of America's orders," Rafsanjani said.
After Saddam's capture in December, Iran said it was preparing a criminal complaint to present to any international court that might try him over the Iran-Iraq war.
Since its 1979 revolution, Iran's clerical establishment has had a policy hostile to the United States, which accuses Tehran of harboring terrorists and pursuing nuclear weapons.
Rafsanjani, a top adviser to Iran's most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accused Washington of "imposing a shameful censorship" on the media over the coverage of Saddam's trial.
"Saddam should be tried in an open court," he said. "The dictator should be allowed to talk, Iraqis and Iranians also should be allowed to talk at the court as victims of Saddam's crimes."
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
