PM says Saddam hanging Iraqi affair, warns critics
Source: Reuters
(Adds quotes, background) By Ibon Villelabeitia BAGHDAD, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday Saddam Hussein's execution was a "domestic affair" and warned countries which have criticised the hanging that his government could review relations with them. Maliki, a Shi'ite, said in a speech marking Army Day that Saddam had received a fair trial and that his execution on Dec. 30 was for the benefit of Iraq's unity. A clandestine video showing images of Shi'ite officials taunting Saddam on the gallows has angered his fellow Sunni Arabs and increased sectarian tension. Maliki, who rushed through the execution of his former enemy four days after he lost an appeal, did not mention any country. But his remarks came days after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, joining criticism from other Sunni Arab countries, said pictures of the hanging were "revolting and barbaric." "The execution of the dictator is a domestic affair. It is related to the Iraqi people alone and we reject and condemn all official and unofficial statements made by some governments... "The Iraqi government may have to reconsider its relations with any country that does not respect the will of the Iraqi people," he said. Maliki, a member of the Shi'ite majority that was oppressed under Saddam, defended the U.S-backed court that tried the ousted leader and said the execution had not been political. "The execution of the tyrant was not a political decision as the enemies of the Iraqi people are trying to show. This decision was made after a long and fair trial the tyrant did not deserve," he said. The hanging has inflamed sectarian passions in Iraq -- thousands of Sunni Arabs have marched in protest -- and came amid heightened regional sectarian and ethnic tensions between the mainly Sunni Muslim Arab world and Shi'ites who dominate Iraq and neighbouring, non-Arab Iran. Maliki, who in an officially released video was seen signing the execution order in red ink, also had harsh words for international human rights groups who criticised the execution. "I have to remind the international community and human rights groups where were they when the crimes of Anfal, Halabja, the mass graves and the executions took place?," Maliki said referring to crimes against humanity that have been blamed on Saddam.
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