Anti-war movement condemns US 'triumphalism'

The Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM) has reacted angrily to the "triumphalism" displayed by the United States over the capture of Saddam Hussein.

The IAWM chairman, Mr Richard Boyd Barrett, said the capture of an "unkempt, old man hiding in a hole in the ground" shows claims that Saddam was orchestrating the ongoing resistance to the US occupation were false.

"It is the mass of the Iraqi people who reject the US/UK occupation and demand that the invaders leave now", he said.

"While nobody will shed any tears for the brutal former dictator, the idea that the capture of Saddam by US forces is a step towards democracy and peace for Iraq is ludicrous", said Mr Boyd Barrett.

The US administrator in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, announced the news of the deposed Iraqi president yesterday by saying: "We've got him."

According to Mr Boyd Barrett, this was the "triumphal cry by one dictator celebrating the capture of another". He said the United States came to power in Iraq "over the dead bodies of tens of thousands of Iraqi people" and that Mr George W. Bush, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, should face trial for crimes against the Iraqi people alongside Saddam.

"Bertie Ahern should stop expressing false sympathy for the Iraqi people and, instead, throw the US war machine out of Shannon.", the IAWM chairman said.