Saddam trial resumes with hidden ‘Witness A’

By Luke Baker and Gideon Long

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The first woman to testify in the trial
of Saddam Hussein broke down in tears on Tuesday as, in fear of
her life, she testified behind a curtain about how she was
forced to strip by Iraqi prison guards.

Identified only as “Witness A,” she said she was beaten
with cables by Saddam’s guards after being forced to strip, and
was fed bread through a tiny window in a prison cell, which she
shared with a young girl.

The woman was held with hundreds of others rounded up after
an attempt on Saddam’s life in the village of Dujail in 1982.

She said she had been moved from one prison to another over
four years during Saddam’s rule, and had spent a bitter winter
at the Abu Ghraib jail in western Baghdad.

From Abu Ghraib she was driven through the Iraqi desert to
another jail. The witness said she saw camels by the side of
the road during the journey. “I was envious because they were
free,” she said.

A second witness, an elderly woman, told the heavily
fortified Baghdad court that she had been taken away by
Saddam’s men along with her husband, five daughters and two
sons.

Saddam, accused of crimes against humanity and facing
possible execution, sat largely impassively through the fourth
hearing of his trial after a stormy session on Monday when he
argued with judges and upbraided lawyers and witnesses.

As he entered the court he greeted his co-defendants with
the defiant phrase: “Good morning to all those who respect the
law.” He has said the trial is a “Made in America” sham and has
repeatedly questioned the court’s authority.

The trial has rekindled painful memories for many Iraqis
just a week before they vote for their first full-term
parliament since Saddam’s downfall.

For many in the Shi’ite majority and among ethnic Kurds,
oppressed by Saddam’s Sunni Arab-dominated regime, the widely
televised trial addresses a longing for vengeance not entirely
satisfied by the power U.S.-backed democracy has brought them.

But others, including minority Sunnis who feel threatened
by a Shi’ite-led government they accuse of condoning death
squads out for revenge, share Saddam’s contention that the
U.S.-funded court is staging a show trial.

Tuesday’s hearing, like the three previous sessions, was
dogged by procedural and technical problems.

Witness A began by speaking through a computerized voice
modifier to protect her identity, but Saddam’s defense team
complained they could not hear the evidence and the trial judge
was forced to order a recess which lasted 40 minutes.

It was unclear from the woman’s testimony when or where all
the alleged incidents took place. The trial is centered on the
killings of 148 men from the Shi’ite village of Dujail after an
assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982.

Witness A said that after being tortured, she had been
thrown into a small red cell.

“The light was red. It was all red. I had a girl with me —
Laila Jassim. We put shoes down as pillows, then the door was
locked. From a small window, they gave us two loaves of bread.
After all that torture, do you think we could eat?”

She described being taken from there to Abu Ghraib.

“I cannot describe what was there,” she said. “In winter,
the water was freezing … We saw lice in our hair, everywhere.
We had no shoes, we used to go barefoot. We would use cardboard
and fashion a shoe out of it to go to the restroom.”

Tuesday’s proceedings followed a lengthy and highly charged
hearing on Monday where two witnesses, defying a man who still
inspires fear in Iraq, gave emotional testimony of torture and
crimes against humanity.

The proceedings are being shown on delayed television
broadcast and the witnesses openly faced their former
president. One told of a meat grinder for human flesh and other
horrors allegedly inflicted on people from Dujail.

The defendants dismissed the evidence as lies and Saddam
told the judge he was not afraid to die.

Saddam’s trial opened on October 19 but was swiftly
adjourned for 40 days to give the defense more time to prepare,
and again last week to let two of his seven co-accused find new
attorneys following the killing of a second defense lawyer last
month.

International rights groups have criticized the court for
failing to protect defense lawyers and the U.N.’s human rights
chief in Iraq says he sees little prospect of the trial meeting
international standards.