CPA Statement on the Execution of Saddam Hussein

The Canadian Peace Alliance condemns the execution of Saddam Hussein as an insult to the people of Iraq and the entire region. The lack of due process in his trial should be a concern for all people who support justice and the rule of law and has been condemned by human rights groups around the globe. We call on the Government of Canada to condemn this act.

This vengeful execution will only bring more violence to the scene in Iraq. George Bush's assertion that this was a great act of an independent Iraq is farcical. The United States, which had total control over the process of his "trial" including the right to change the presiding judges, has exacerbated the conflict in Iraq with this action, leading to more division within the country. This is a standard divide and conquer tactic which will further polarize the Iraqi people.

This execution is also more evidence of the double standard that the US and its allies apply to the Middle East. Saddam Hussein was executed for the murder of 150 Iraqi people. Who then will charge and prosecute the last 3 American presidents that are responsible for the murder of roughly 2.5 million Iraqis through war and sanctions? Who will charge Donald Rumsfeld for selling chemical weapons to the Iraqi government so that he could murder thousands if Iraqis? Who will charge the US for its complicity and its support for Hussein's regime while this was occurring?

Hussein was a brutal dictator yet the Iraq Centre for Research and Strategic Studies poll found that 90% of the Iraqi people feel that things were better under his leadership than under the violent US/UK led occupation. Killing Hussein will not change that fact nor will it curtail the desire of the Iraqi people to end the occupation. Indeed, in death he will become a martyr and will be more powerful than the US could have imagined.

The Iraq study group report explicitly states that, "there is little evidence that the long-term deployment of U.S. troops by itself has led or will lead to fundamental improvements in the security situation." The Iraqi people know this and the American people increasingly realize this fact. On March 17 2007 hundreds of thousands of people will once again march all over the world to call for an end the US/UK occupation of Iraq.

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