The reactions in other parts of the Middle East are mixed. Many see it as a US-imposed verdict handed down by a kangaroo court. The continued US occupation would be another factor that clouds the impartiality of the judicial process. While not many countries in the region have a positive view of the brutality unleashed by Saddam Hussein against his own people, they have found him to be an effective rallying point against their own Arab rulers and their Western supporters, especially the US. He has, in fact, emerged as a champion of the down-trodden and a battle cry against US hegemony.

As the UN-sanctioned economic blockade imposed by the US was strangulating the Ba’athist regime, Iraq found widespread support among the Arab masses. This became even more acute when the US planned to invade Iraq. Even those Arab states which wanted Saddam Hussein’s removal were too afraid to identify with the US agenda against Iraq and chose to criticise in public the American designs on Iraq.

The partisan reactions to the verdict symbolise the passion Saddam Hussein generated while he was in office. Short of acquittal, the death sentence was an inevitable verdict. At one level, it might usher in a constitutional process that relies on due process, something that has been alien to Iraq and many other countries in the region for a long time. At another, the verdict would not solve any of the mounting problems facing Iraq and its immediate neighbours. In fact, it will intensify and fuel the sectarian violence with the Sunni Arabs using the verdict as their new rallying point.

... contd.