Saddam shaken as he witnesses election of president
Saddam Hussein watched the election of Iraq’s new president on video and was shaken by what he saw, the country’s human-rights minister said.
“He was clearly upset. He realised that it was over, that a democratic process had taken place and that there was a new, elected president,” Bakhtiar Amin said.
“It was not just the fact that there was a new president, but that the president was a Kurd. What’s more, it all happened without bloodshed,” he said.
Iraq’s parliament elected Jalal Talabani, a veteran Kurdish leader, as president.
Saddam watched a videotape of the vote in his prison cell at Camp Cropper, a high-security facility on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Later, 11 of his senior lieutenants watched the same video, Amin said.
He said seeing the footage is likely to have hammered home to the former president and his deputies that Iraq has moved on.
“I feel this will affect how they respond when they go to trial,” he said.
“Now they know for sure that they are not coming back and my feeling is that they may be inclined to be more honest when they go before the tribunal.”
