Letters from Iraq's former deputy PM Tariq Aziz insist he is innocent and claim he is being held illegally.
Antony Barnett - The Observer
Sunday May 29, 2005
He was the urbane, English-speaking deputy to Saddam Hussein, the bespectacled face of the former Iraqi dictator's regime, at home on the international stage.
Yet nothing had been heard or seen from Tariq Aziz since he surrendered to US forces on 24 April, 2003, as Iraq crumbled around him.
Today The Observer publishes several letters from the former cigar-smoking Deputy Prime Minister handwritten from Camp Cropper prison in Baghdad. Aziz scribbled these notes on pages from his lawyer's diary who was with him when he was questioned recently by the CIA and US politicians.
Two are in Arabic, the other three in English and addressed to: 'The world public opinion.' Aziz pleads for international help to end his 'dire situation'. He claims he is innocent and is being held unjustly without being allowed contact with his family. One letter reveals questions he had been asked about which politicians benefited from the controversial UN oil-for-food programme.
Although Aziz supporters claim he is a 'political prisoner' who did his best to restrain Saddam, his opponents have little sympathy. They describe him as the dictator's henchman who also bears personal responsibility for crimes committed by the Baathist regime, such as the gassing of Kurds at Halabja.
Aziz's letters are another remarkable snapshot into how Iraqi's former political elite are being held. This month the Sun published photographs of Saddam in his underpants in his Camp Cropper cell and The Observer revealed how prisoners are kept mostly in solitary confinement in tiny cells with no natural daylight.
The most recent letters by Aziz were written on 21 April, when he was being interviewed by US senators investigating allegations of corruption surrounding the oil-for-food programme, which allowed Saddam to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian goods and services.
Writing in Arabic, Aziz says: 'We are totally isolated from the world. There are 13 other detainees here, but we have no meetings or telephone contacts wth our families. I have been accused unjustly, but to date no proper investigation has taken place. It is imperative that there is intervention into our dire situation and treatment. It is totally in contradiction to international law, the Geneva Convention and Iraqi law as we know it.'
In a letter dated 7 March and written in English, Aziz states: 'We hope that you will help us. We have been in prison for a long time and we have been cut from our families. No contacts, no phones, no letters. Even the parcels sent to us by our families are not given to us. We need a fair treatment, a fair investigation and finally a fair trial. Please help us.'
In another letter, written in Arabic and English, he says: 'I haven't been accused of anything,' and 'I have not done anything contrary to law and human behaviour.'
Speaking from Jordan, his son, Ziad Aziz, who was jailed by Saddam, has defended his father's role as the former dictator's deputy, claiming that he was only following orders and would have been killed if he disagreed. 'My father is now in poor health and should be brought to trial or relased,' he added.
Aziz - the only Christian in Saddam's government - was 43rd in the US 'most wanted' set of 55 playing cards and not considered to be a member of the innermost circle, dominated by the Tikriti clan.
However, according to Indict, the committee seeking to prosecute the Iraqi leadership, he was a member of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council and is therefore complicit in genocide and war crimes against Iran, Kuwait and his own Iraqi people.
An Iraqi tribunal has also implicated him in the 1988 gas attack on Kurds in Halabja. There have been unsubstantiated reports that Aziz will be a star witness in any trial of Saddam, providing crucial evidence that Saddam was personally responsible for war crimes.
One of Aziz's roles was as the principal contact for foreign individuals involved in the oil-for-food programme which has been dogged by allegations of corruption. Saddam offered favoured people allocations of oil which they could sell for huge profits. In return, the former Iraqi leader took illegal kickbacks that helped fund his regime.
In a note scribbled on his lawyer's diary, Aziz says: 'I was asked if I had recommended giving money or oil to President Chirac [of France], or Petros Gali [former UN general secretary Boutros Boutros-Ghali], Ekius [UN weapons inspector Rolf Ekeus]. My answer is NO. The same to President Megawati [Sukarnoputri of Indonesia]. NO.'
Chirac, Boutros-Ghali and Megawati have previously strenuously denied receiving any oil allocations. Ekeus, the Swede who led the UN's efforts to track down WMD from 1991 to 1997, has claimed he was offered a $2 million bribe from Aziz to doctor his reports, but turned it down.
29.5.2005. 10:59:49
Pakistani troops claim they have defeated 600 al-Qaeda linked militants based in the southern Waziristan tribal region.
Regional commander Major General Niaz Khattak said al-Qaeda fighters had either been killed, captured or driven out.
He said he had seen no trace of fugitive al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden during the operation.
Troops were now focusing on developing infrastructure as well as medical and educational facilities.
General Khattak said his forces had killed 306 militants and arrested 700 others since the start of military operations in the area more than a year ago.
Meanwhile, security forces were on alert for reprisal attacks after a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of Shiite Muslims on Friday, killing at least 19 people and wounding nearly 100 others.
The government has ordered tighter security across the country- particularly at mosques and other places of worship following the explosion at the Bari Imam shrine near Islamabad.
Most of the victims of the blast were members of the minority Shiite community, triggering concerns over a new round of sectarian violence.