 Saddam Hussein watched the televised election of Iraq's new president from his jail cell yesterday and was "clearly upset", a senior official said. Jalal Talabani, a former Kurdish guerrilla commander and sworn enemy of Saddam, was elected to the highest office in a parliamentary ballot, bringing a new government a step closer. Under Saddam the only way Mr Talabani would have left his northern redoubt was in chains or a coffin, but yesterday he arrived in Baghdad in a blaze of triumph. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shia who is finance minister in the outgoing government, and Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab tribal leader, were elected vice-presidents. It was galling viewing for Saddam, according to Bakhtiar Amin, the human rights minister, who said the former dictator had chosen to view the recording of the parliamentary vote. "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," Mr Amin told Reuters.
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He said the footage demonstrating the progress towards a democratically elected government could change attitudes in the prison camp where Saddam and his former aides are being held. "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," he said. Mr Talabani, 72, promised pluralism and respect for Iraq's Islamic identity in his acceptance speech. "After being liberated from the most hideous of dictatorships our people - the Arabs, the Kurds, the Turkomans and the Assyrians - want to build a new Iraq free from dictatorship and tyranny, a democratic, unified Iraq," he said. |