IRAQ: A combative Saddam Hussein complained strongly about his treatment by US guards and demanded that the chief judge stand up to American "occupiers and invaders" as his trial for crimes against humanity resumed in a heavily-guarded Baghdad court yesterday.
The 68-year-old former president began his monologue with a verse from the the Koran which reminds believers who wish to go to Heaven that God knows who actually participated in jihad.
Two of the seven other defendants also spoke out during the 2½ hour session, complaining of their treatment in detention, or of dissatisfaction with their court-appointed counsel.
The tribunal adjourned until next Monday to give the defence time to replace lawyers killed since the opening session on October 19th.
The court's tolerance of such comments drew sharp complaints from Shia politicians who believed the Iraqi High Tribunal was bending over backwards to accommodate a defendant who should have already been convicted and executed.
"The chief judge should be changed and replaced by someone who is strict and courageous," said Shia legislator Ali al-Adeeb, a senior official in prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's party.
Saddam and his co-defendants stand accused of killing more than 140 Shia Muslims after an assassination attempt against the former president in the Shia town of Dujail in 1982. Convictions could bring a sentence of death by hanging.
The tribunal allowed former US attorney general Ramsey Clark and prominent lawyers from Qatar and Jordan to join the defence team as advisers, a move aimed at convincing foreign human rights groups that the trial would meet international standards of fairness.
Yesterday the chief judge, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, ordered all handcuffs and shackles removed from the defendants before they entered the courtroom - another gesture toward the accused.
But the conduct of the session - only the second day of the trial - often appeared rambling and unfocused. Saddam, immaculately groomed and the only defendant wearing Western clothes, moved quickly to try to seize control of the proceedings.
Saddam was the last defendant to enter the chamber. While other defendants appeared frightened and exhausted, Saddam swaggered confidently to his seat, greeting people along the way with the traditional Arabic greeting, "Peace be upon the people of peace" as he cradled a copy of the Koran.
He then complained that he had to walk up four flights of stairs in shackles and accompanied by "foreign guards" because the lift was not working.
Judge Amin said he would tell the police not to let that happen again.
"You are the chief judge," Saddam snapped back. "I don't want you to tell them. I want you to order them. They are in our country. You have the sovereignty. You are Iraqi and they are foreigners and occupiers. They are invaders. You should order them."
Saddam also complained that some of his papers had been taken from him.
"How can a defendant defend himself if his pen was taken? Saddam Hussein's pen and papers were taken. I don't mean a white paper. There are papers downstairs that include my remarks in which I express my opinion," he said.
Judge Amin ordered bailiffs to give Saddam pen and paper.
Meanwhile, gunmen yesterday shot dead a senior official of Iraq's largest Sunni Muslim party along with two bodyguards as they drove in an area west of Baghdad.
Ayad al-Izzi, a politburo member of the Iraqi Islamic Party and a candidate for next month's general elections, was gunned down between Fallujah and Baghdad. The Iraqi Islamic Party along with two other Sunni groups have forged an alliance to run in the December 15th vote.
The Iraqi government yesterday pledged "every assistance" in helping to find a British peace activist kidnapped in Baghdad, British foreign secretary Jack Straw said yesterday.
Retired professor Norman Kember was snatched along with two Canadians and an American in Baghdad on Saturday.
Mr Kember, a grandfather and a former professor at a teaching hospital, who is believed to be in his 70s, is a former secretary of the Baptist Peace Fellowship and a trustee of the Christian peace organisation, the Fellowship for Reconciliation.
In another development in Iraq, two Britons were killed and three others injured earlier yesterday in an attack on a bus carrying Muslim pilgrims south of Baghdad. - (AP)