On Monday, the daily PBS program "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" had a video interview with John Burns of the New York Times, who is currently in Baghdad, Iraq. Indeed, he reports directly from Iraq quite often, and has been doing so for a very long time.
The news on Monday (transcript) was that "after many weeks of waiting, the first live witnesses took the stand in testimony against Saddam Hussein and his fellow defendants."
JOHN BURNS: It was really the most extraordinary day. You have to remember that this trial has been 20 months in preparation since this special Iraqi court was established. It's been in session, the court, for seven weeks but has only managed to meet three times, the third time today. They've never got, until today, to the heart of the matter, the case against Saddam Hussein, the case that is the first of many that is going to tell us the story of how as many as two million people died here during his 24 years in power. And it was the most wrenching experience to hear this first live witness speaking of the torture, speaking of babies being thrown out of windows, of human grinding machines at the headquarters of the secret police, of fathers watching their sons being tortured.
I'm sure much of this is in the evening television news in the United States but the effect has been quite electric across Iraq as we can measure it. People who have until know - people that I know who have until now seemed indifferent in some ways to the terrible things that were done here under Saddam Hussein-- I'm talking for the most part about Sunni Arabs who were the principal beneficiaries of Saddam's rules -- were absolutely mortified by what they heard today.
You have to consider that Saddam's Iraq had extreme restrictions on the press. Certainly many Iraqis were aware that they were living under a reign of terror, and rumors of horrible things done to others are key to making a reign of terror effective. There were not, however, actual accounts of crimes against humanity. Westerners such as myself needed only to watch the news in order to have heard about the former Iraqi secret police throwing humans into industrial plastic shredders. In Iraq, such things would only be known by whispers from terrified witnesses.
Monday changed all of that. It was only the tip of the iceberg of inhumanity that spanned decades, yet this first testimony had the power to shatter all illusions.
I must admit, though, that I can't really conceive of two million dead. Stalin was wrong-- a huge number of deaths is a tragedy. It's just more than a mind can understand.
RAY SUAREZ: Well, as these wrenching details were being revealed, what was the former president of Iraq's demeanor? JOHN BURNS: Well, that was very much part of the drama. As we have seen on his previous appearances in court: Defiant, indignant at the indignities, as he sees them that were visited upon him.
In the midst of the witness telling this tale so difficult for him in the telling that he broke down and sobbed several times, Saddam was continuously complaining that he didn't have a paper and pen, that he had to write his notes on his hand.
His attitude seemed to be in effect how dare you, Mr. Mohammed, and who are you anyway, to make these kinds of accusations against me? The other person who was notable in this respect was Saddam's half brother, Bazan al-Takriti, who was in some ways being more defiant today. He's the former head of the secret police at the time of the events charged in this trial which was an assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982 which was followed by the execution of 148 men and teen-aged boys from the town Dujail where that happened.
And the attitude seemed to vary on the part of the defendants, Saddam and his half brother in particular, from indifference to indignation. But at no point did you see anything reproaching pity or remorse.
Not that I expected Saddam Hussein to express (let alone feel) any remorse or pity. Having 148 people killed just to send a message was simply the way he operated.
Saddam is trying to complain about his treatment at every opportunity. Nevermind that whatever the conditions are, they are fantastically humane compared to anything that his prisoners faced. And he actually is writing notes on his hand, to go with the complaint about the lack of paper. Of course, to a totalitarian dictator who had several palaces, being treated like a crminal-- no matter how fairly it is done-- is going to seem extremely degrading. I sincerely hope that Saddam is being handled in a scrupulously fair manner. Since there's plenty of evidence to result in a scrupulously fair execution, and that's punishment enough. Even for him.
I don't know if he's just running a bluff, or if he's still in some mental playground whereby he doesn't realize that, this time, he's in trouble up to his facial hair, and that nothing is going to save his evil hide from the hangman.
RAY SUAREZ: Well, you talk about the people of Iraq wanting justice. What do they make of this whole spectacle that they're able to see on TV? JOHN BURNS: I think I'd have to say that they, like us, find it is most astonishing spectacle. And I'm talking here not just the communities that were the principal victims of Saddam: The Shiites and the Kurds and the Turkmens and others but also the Sunni-Arab minority that ruled through Saddam Hussein, in fact, ruled here for centuries.
I think they find it extremely arresting. I would say the net of it all today after listening to this gut-wrenching testimony, the most important thing that happened today was there was finally after all this wait, there was an accounting of sorts.
The horrors through which people were subjected by Saddam's secret police were finally being laid out to the evident astonishment even of people who until very recently were telling me that Saddam Hussein was a hero and hoped for his restoration.
This is fantastic news. It just hadn't occurred to me, before this story, that some of the people of Iraq might not realize what bad things had been done to other Iraqis. Sure, it's obvious now that it's been pointed out, but I knew about the atrocities before now, and I'm thousands of miles away. That's what a free press can do for you-- and do to your perceptions of what other people "must" know.
Now that the dirty laundry is being aired, it can only erode support for the old regime. And that is a good thing for decent humans everywhere.
Posted by Mitch at December 7, 2005 02:25 AMJeez.
Never mind the choice of subject matter, which was deep and evocative, that's some fine fine writing my friend. I'm proud to know you, and to read your stuff, even as infrequently as this.
Clear a bit more time for thought and scribbling Mitch. You're worth it.
KSM
Posted by: Kevin Sean at December 12, 2005 03:08 AM