Dujail

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Dujail ( 33°51′N, 44°14′E, Arabic: الدجيل; alternate spelling: Ad Dujayl) is a small Shiite town in northern Iraq. It is situated about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, and has approximately 10,000 inhabitants.

[edit] Assassination attempt and reprisals

Dujail was the site of an unsuccessful assassination attempt against then Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, on July 8, 1982. The town was a stronghold of the Shiite Dawa Party, a group strongly opposed to Saddam Hussein and his war with Iran. Saddam Hussein was visiting the town to make a speech praising those who had served Iraq in the fight against Iran. While driving through the village centre, his motorcade was attacked by one or more members of the Dawa Party. The president was unharmed in the three-hour firefight which ensued.

Saddam Hussein ordered his special security and military forces to carry out a reprisal attack against the town, which resulted in a total of 148 of the town's men being killed in the attack or executed later, some as young as 13 years of age.[1] 1,500 people were also incarcerated and tortured, while other residents, many of them women and children, were sent to desert camps. Saddam's regime destroyed the town and then rebuilt it shortly after. In addition to these punishments, 1,000 square kilometres (250,000 acres) of farmland was destroyed; replanting was only permitted 10 years later.[2]

A resident of Dujail recalled the incident at Hussein's trial in December 2005, stating that he had witnessed Baathist torture and murder in the government reprisal, including the murders of 7 of his 10 brothers.[3] The executions in Dujail were the primary charges for which Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging on December 30, 2006. Barzan Hassan, Hussein's half-brother and former Iraqi intelligence chief, and Awad Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, were hanged on January 15, 2007 for their parts in the massacre.[4] Later, Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's former deputy and former vice-president (originally sentenced to life in prison but later to death by hanging), was likewise executed on March 20, 2007, the fourth and last man in the al-Dujail trial to die by hanging for crimes against humanity. [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Who knew about Dujail massacre?", Ynetnews
  2. ^ The Economist 1982 and Kanan Makiya's book, Republic of Fear
  3. ^ "Witness won't let Saddam intimidate him", The Sydney Morning Herald
  4. ^ http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/14/iraq.executions.ap/index.html
  5. ^ Saddam's former deputy hanged in Iraq March 20, 2007

[edit] External Links

  • Saddam trial to open with village massacre A little-known massacre at a village where residents tried to assassinate Saddam Hussein in 1982 will be the focus of the first case in the trial of the former Iraqi president. (The Guardian; June 7th, 2005)
  • At Hussein's Hearings, U.S. May Be on Trial The first crime of which Saddam Hussein is accused in the current trial, the secret execution of 143 Shiites arrested in 1982. He is also accused of using poison gas against Iranian troops, of genocide against the Kurds and of massacring tens of thousands to end the 1991 uprising after his defeat in the Gulf War. The problem for the Bush administration with these other, far graver charges, is that the Americans are implicated in them either through acts of commission or omission. (Znet; December 1st, 2005)
  • Seeking justice in Dujail It is a sight that most Iraqis never thought they would see - the man who ruled over them for more than two decades standing trial, in an Iraqi court and before Iraqi judges. (BBC; November 25th, 2005)
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