Saddam trial over massacre of Kurds resumes

Baghdad: The second trial of Saddam Hussain, on charges of genocide in connection with a crackdown on Kurds, resumed on Monday after a 19-day hiatus with the former Iraqi leader in the courtroom.

Saddam clutched his Holy Koran as the chief judge Abdullah Al Amiri argued with one of the lawyers on technicalities pertaining to witnesses taking the stand. Saddam's chief lawyer, Iraqi Khalil Al Dulaimi, was not present, but lawyers for the other defendants were.

The trial's resumption on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States bore a tinge of irony in light of a recent US Senate committee report that found no link between Saddam and the Al Qaida terror network that carried out the attacks that killed some 3,000people.

Saddam and six co-defendants face a possible death penalty for the killings of tens of thousands of Kurds during the Anfal campaign, a massive military assault in northern Iraq in the 1980s.

The offensive levelled hundreds of villages and saw the widespread use of chemical weapons by Saddam's regime. Residents were herded into prison camps where many of the men disappeared and were executed, according to prosecutors.

During the morning session, Katreen Elias Mikhail, a Kurdish Christian and former militia fighter, said four Iraqi planes unleashed a wave of bombs on the evening of June 5, 1987 on the town of Qalizewa, sending people fleeing for shelter.

Saddam spoke out Monday about Iraq's ongoing flag controversy in the midst of his trial, saying he had inherited the flag not created it.

Before the judge cut off the sound to his microphone, Saddam mentioned Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani and maintained the flag was not "raised during the Anfal campaign".

"The flag behind you," he said pointing at the judge. "We inherited it, I did not establish it."

On September 1, Barzani banned the flying of Iraq's national flag in the northern Kurdish provinces, saying it was the flag of genocide against the Kurds. The move prompted fears of Kurdish secession - something Saddam's campaigns were originally launched to prevent.

"Saddam Hussain only ordered to write God is Greatest (on the flag) so that no one can remove it," said Saddam, referring to himself in the third person.

Under Iraq's new constitution, the parliament will design and debate a new national flag for the country.

A 56-year-old Kurdish-American woman told of seeing people sickened and dying during an alleged chemical attack carried out by Saddam Hussein's forces, as the genocide trial of the ex-president resumed Monday after nearly a three-week break.

The trial resumed on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks by Al Qaida on the United States. A recent US Senate committee report found no link between Saddam and the terror network, despite carefully crafted White House statements that implied a role for the former Iraqi leader. That was used in part to justify the 2003 invasion that toppled him.

Proceedings adjourned until Tuesday after the court heard three witnesses testify on the alleged chemical attack on northern Iraq.

Saddam is still waiting a verdict on October 16 in the first case against him - the nine-month-long trial over the killings of 148 Shiites in a 1980s crackdown on the town of Dujail. In that case as well, he and seven other co-defendants could face the death penalty.

The Anfal trial, which began on August 21, is likely to take months as well. The early proceedings heard grim testimony from Kurdish witnesses who told of entire families killed in chemical weapons attacks against their villages. They said survivors plunged their faces into milk to end the pain from the blinding gas or fled into the hills on mules as military helicopters fired on them.

The chief judge Al Amiri adjourned the trial just two days later and ordered it be resumed on September 11 to consider defense appeals over the legitimacy of the tribunal.