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Today's announcement by Human Rights Watch that the trial of Saddam Hussein was "so flawed that its verdict is unsound" loses much of its potency in the context of the magnitude of the crime that is the ongoing occupation of Iraq, and its resultant human catastrophe for the Iraqi people.
The show trial which ended in a sentence of death for Saddam and two other defendants, for crimes against humanity, was an exercise in victors' justice, carried out at the behest of those who by all measure should have been in the dock alongside the former Iraqi dictator, whose regime enjoyed the support and funding of Western governments during the era in which the worst of its atrocities took place. The New York-based Human Rights Watch group said in their report:
"The trials were among the most important since the Nazi trials in Nuremberg after World War II, representing the first opportunity to create a historical record concerning some of the worst cases of human rights violations, and to begin the process of a methodical accounting of the policies and decisions that gave rise to these events."
Solidarity demands such an accounting with regard to the illegality of the war in Iraq, responsible thus far for the slaughter of 655,000 men, women and children. We also demand that charges are brought against those responsible for the sanctions which cost the lives of an additional 2 million Iraqis, 500,000 of whom were children.
A Solidarity spokesperson said of the Human Rights Watch report:
"How could a trial in which defence lawyers were murdered, in which the original presiding judge was replaced by what is nothing more than a puppet government because they felt he was too lenient, how could such a trial ever be adjudged to have been fair?"
Perhaps the most damning aspect of the HRW report was the revelation that documents were not given to defence lawyers in advance, no written transcript was kept and paperwork was lost. In addition, the report states, the defence was also prevented from cross-examining witnesses and the judges made asides that pre-judged Saddam Hussein.
Solidarity reaffirms its commitment to the ongoing campaign to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home. However, given the enormity of the crimes committed against the Iraqi people by the American and British governments, we believe that this will not be enough. With the war now entering its final stages, and as defeat for US and British occupation forces beckons, the priority must shift to ensuring that those responsible - Bush, Blair and key figures within their respective governments - are brought to justice.
The carnage they have unleashed will already follow them to the grave. It should also follow them into an international criminal court.
This will be the only fitting tribute not only to the tens of thousands of Iraqi victims of this war, but also to its other victims, the troops who've been sacrificed on the alter of the free market and their families left bereaved.
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