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Russia warns Saddam hanging would divide
Iraq
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AFP Sunday, November 05, 2006 20:45 IST MOSCOW: Moscow warned of "catastrophic consequences" in Iraq if former president Saddam Hussein is hanged, but expressed scepticism on Sunday that the death penalty would be carried out. If the execution took place "there would be catastrophic consequences for Iraq, which is already on the verge of breaking up", said Konstantin Kosachev, president of the parliamentary commission for foreign affairs, on Moscow Echo radio. "It is unlikely the death penalty will be applied," he added. "It's rather a decision of moral principle". "It is obvious that condemning him to death will only further divide Iraqi society, the Sunnis will not recognise this sentence," he said. Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging on Sunday for ordering the massacre of 148 Shiite residents of the village of Dujail in the 1980s. A foreign ministry spokesman in Moscow indicated that he suspected a whiff of foreign interference in Saddam's sentencing. "The trial of a citizen of a country, whatever post he held, is an internal affair for that country and should be carried out without interference from abroad," said the http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1062317 Russia warns against outside influence in Saddam case Moscow, Nov. 6 (AP): Russian pundits and politicians said Sunday that the verdict against Saddam Hussein was engineered to influence the U.S. midterm elections this week, while the Foreign Ministry issued a more cautious official comment warning against outside influence in his trial. ``We believe that the trial of a citizen of any country, whatever post he once held, is an internal matter of that state and must be conducted and concluded without prompting from outside,'' the statement quoted ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying. Kamynin did not name the United States or any other nation and stopped short of even stating that the trial was influenced from outside. Ultranationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who had ties with Saddam's government, was the most prominent Russian politician to make the connection _ and as usual, he did not mince words. ``It is purely for the election of Republicans, the elections are Tuesday and Bush must show what he has at least achieved something in Iraq, since he frightened all America (by saying Saddam was) a horrible dictator, while in fact under him there was quiet and calm, order _ no terrorists, no Islamists,'' Zhirinovsky told Ekho Moskvy radio. A well-known Kremlin-connected political analyst, Vyacheslav Nikonov, also suggested the timing was no coincidence. ``The Iraq issue will be central in the elections and (the verdict) will be the Bush camp's last argument that the war ... has not been a wasteful effort and that the main culprit will be punished,'' the Interfax news agency quoted Nikonov as saying. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said that ``Hussein was tried by occupation authorities, not by an Iraqi court, and called the verdict an example of the United States ``settling scores with those who did not want to obey the White House, Interfax reported. ``This verdict raises a mass of questions, the first and most serious of which is, ``Who benefits?''' Mikhail Margelov, head of the international affairs committee in the upper parliament house, said on state-run Channel One television. Russian politicians also warned that that the verdict would likely further destabilize Iraq. Kamynin suggested the government shared that assessment, saying that ``it is particularly important to avoid anything that could additionally split Iraqi society.'' Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/ Please let us stay on topic and be civil. OM
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