Saddam Hussein's Anfal trial, adds Kurdish witness

Описание: (14 Sep 2006) SHOTLIST
1. Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in dock
2. Chief Judge Abdullah al-Amiri sitting in court wearing headphones
3. Sultan Hashim, former Defence Minister, sitting in dock
4. Various of defendants in dock
5. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Abdullah Mohammed Hussein, Kurdish witness:
"I told Saddam, 'Sir, my family members were arrested'. I asked him to set them free otherwise; life would be miserable without them. Saddam asked me where, and I told him, 'in my village'. Saddam said, 'Shut up. Your family is gone in the Anfal',"
6. Saddam in the dock
7. Mid shot of al-Amiri
STORYLINE:
The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial told the ex-president that he was not a dictator during proceedings on Thursday, a day after the prosecution asked the judge to step down alleging bias toward the defendants.
Judge Abdullah al-Amiri made his remark after a shaken 57-year-old Kurdish witness told a court how an aggressive Saddam Hussein told him to "shut up" when he pleaded for the release of nine relatives who disappeared in an offensive on his northern Iraqi village nearly two decades ago.
"I told Saddam, 'Sir, my family members were arrested'. Saddam asked me where, and I told him, 'in my village'. Saddam said, 'Shut up. Your family is gone in the Anfal'," said Abdullah Mohammed Hussein, referring to Iraq's 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq.
The witness said he had not been shy about arguing with Saddam, whom he was allowed to see after pleading with local authorities in his village.
Previous witnesses said the remains of their Anfal relatives were found in mass graves years later.
Some have recounted how they survived chemical attacks allegedly carried out by Saddam's regime against the Kurdish population.
Saddam has accused the Kurdish witnesses of trying to sow ethnic division in Iraq by alleging chemical attacks and mass arrests in their villages during a crackdown in the late 1980s.
Saddam and six others, including his cousin "Chemical" Ali al-Majid, have been accused of genocide and other offences in connection with Anfal.
The prosecution alleges that about 180,000 Kurds died, many of them civilians.
If convicted, all the defendants could face death by hanging.

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