In late June, three of Saddam Hussein's senior military officials were found guilty of war crimes, including the notorious Chemical Ali. Iraqi law required that they be executed no more than 30 days after Iraqi courts rejected their final appeal. That deadline has passed, but the men are still alive and in US custody. The reason is questions raised by prominent Iraqi officials and a spirited behind-the-scenes deliberation between senior Iraqi and US officials over the death sentence of one of the men, Sultan Hashem Ahmed al-Jabouri al-Tai, the former defence minister.
Hashem's fate has become a test case for reconciliation and whether Iraq's fractious sects and political alliances can work together to resolve the thorny issues surrounding his death sentence. There are also doubts among some Iraqi officials about the fairness of his conviction and punishment.
The heated arguments about Hashem's guilt beg the question: are Iraqis ready to stop the retaliatory killings of members of the former regime? It seems some of them are. "We need to show there have been enough deaths. We are tired of it, we need to stop it," said a senior adviser to President Jalal Talabani. |