Iraqis should feel no guilt over Kurd deaths: Saddam

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2006

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein says Iraqis should not feel guilty for the Kurds who were killed under his regime, at his trial hearing on charges of genocide. "I want to give a message to the Iraqi people that they should not suffer from guilt that they killed Kurds. This is shameful," he said shortly before the trial was adjourned on Monday.

Saddam described the trial over his regime's 1987-1988 Anfal campaign to crush a Kurdish insurgency as an attempt to divide Kurds and Arabs. "The whole beginning (of witness testimonies) is aimed at creating a split within Iraq between the Kurds and Arabs," he said, going on to list examples of how pro-Kurd his regime had been. The Kurds charge Saddam's government with killing over 100,000 Kurds during the Anfal campaign...