Global Policy Forum

Kuwait, which is demanding 170 billion dollars in war reparations for the 1990 Iraqi invasion, is now pressing to play an active role in the trial of its arch-foe Saddam Hussein Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah said Wednesday that Kuwait must take part in the trial of the former dictator, who was captured by US forces on Saturday. "Kuwait must be a part in trying Saddam Hussein for the aggressions and crimes" he committed against the emirate during the seven-month occupation, Sheikh Sabah said. "I believe that Kuwaitis deserve to be the first -- along with Iraqis -- in getting the opportunity to try Saddam because of the magnitude of his crimes against us," Badriya al-Awadi, an expert in international law, said. "His forces committed horrendous crimes against the environment by setting ablaze (more than 700) oil wells. He committed all forms of war crimes. His occupation of Kuwait was a crime against international peace," Awadi told AFP. The Iraqi army invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 but was driven out seven months later by a US-led multinational coalition. The Kuwaiti cabinet in October formed a special committee to account for war crimes committed by Iraqi officials during Baghdad's occupation of the emirate, including Saddam. A United Nations expert on war crimes arrived in Kuwait last month to help the emirate prepare indictments against former Iraqi officials. Justice Minister Ahmad Baqer told parliament that Sharif Basyouni, who worked on cases against alleged Serbian war criminals, is leading a UN team to assist a Kuwaiti government committee on ways to prepare lawsuits and file them in courts. The oil-rich emirate charges that Iraqi troops committed numerous war crimes, including killing at least 1,000 civilians, detaining thousands of prisoners, perpetrating widescale torture and confiscating property. About 600 Kuwaiti prisoners and nationals of third countries went missing during the occupation. Since the ouster of Saddam's regime during the US-led invasion last March, the emirate has identified the remains of 45 of them in various mass graves in Iraq. Awadi said the Kuwaiti side should focus on the criminal aspects of the trial since the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) has already accepted Kuwait's claims. "We should focus on the criminal aspect of all issues including the POWs, torture, occupation, destruction and others," she said.

The Kuwaiti premier has however said Kuwait will not press for the extradition of Saddam Hussein to try him in the emirate, saying the US-installed interim Iraqi Governing Council would take charge of the matter. Awadi believes the best solution is to try Saddam before "a combination of an Iraqi tribunal and an international court," to deal both with internal and external crimes. A majority of Kuwaitis were forced out of their homes during the seven-month occupation and many of them had eagerly awaited Saddam's downfall to see the former president in court. "Thank God that he has been captured alive, so he can be tried for the heinous crimes he has committed" against the Iraqi and Kuwaiti people, Information Minister Mohammad Abulhassan told AFP on Sunday, after the US military announced Saddam's capture. "This is the minute we, and the whole world, have been waiting for: to see the arrest of this tyrant who has horrified his own people and many others in the world," said Abulhassan. The emirate's public prosecutor Hamed al-Othman said in press statements his office has started collecting and documenting evidence for war crimes and "genocide" committed by Saddam Hussein in Kuwait. Awadi said that Kuwaiti individuals should also be allowed to press charges against Saddam.

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