New Delhi: Giving credence to what has been speculated in the Western media, especially the American press, all through the past week, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki admitted in a television interview on Tuesday that US had indeed tried to put off the execution of Saddam Hussein.
Just two days after the infamous execution of the Iraqi dictator, the New York Times had reported that the Americans had opposed the Iraqi authorities' move to execute Saddam in a haste, especially on that particular day as the Eid al-Adha religious holiday, marking the end of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, began for Sunnis at sunrise right on that day.
According to NYT, the Iraqi government officials had promised the US that the hanging would be over before the dawn light began seeping through the palms that shade the capital's streets. Saddam was executed at 0610 hours (local time) just before Baghdad's sunrise time of 0706 hours.
"We did not want to keep a door open for trouble. We did not want the families of the victims to go out and demonstrate," Nouri al-Maliki told the Al-Arabiya television in an interview when asked why he declined the request from Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy to Baghdad, to put off the execution by at least 10 days.
"There was a wish expressed by the US ambassador that the execution be postponed by 10 days or two weeks," Maliki said. "The request took place, but in fact we rejected it for these security concerns," he explained.
According to NYT, the Iraqi Prime Minister, in fact, "tried to coerce the second-tier American military and diplomatic officials into handing over Hussein, first on Thursday night, then again on Friday." Saddam was executed early on Saturday.
The American pushback was complicated by the absences of the US Ambassador and the top American military commander, General George W Casey Jr, who were both out of Iraq on leave. The American message throughout was that rushing Hussein to the gallows could rebound disastrously as it did, NYT says.
The report also reveals disagreement among the Americans on the issue. After a final call to Maliki at 2230 hours on Friday, Khalilzad had concluded that there was no prospect of persuading the Iraqis to delay the execution and passed that message to Washington. The conclusion found little favour with the military, who were the ones who had to transport Hussein to the gallows.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi authorities announced on Wednesday that they were determined to execute two of Saddam Hussein's henchmen 'in a few days' defying international calls to stay their hanging. The United Nations and several other international organisations have urged Iraq for mercy for former secret police chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and revolutionary court judge Awad Ahmed al-Bandar.
The two were convicted along with Saddam of crimes against humanity and were due to hang along with the deposed leader on December 30. A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said: "There are some technical issues. The government is determined to carry out the verdict given by the Iraqi court."
Comments
0 comment