Statement from IPC: October 30, 2010
Comrade Tariq Aziz
“We will welcome the Americans to Baghdad. Unfortunately, we’ve run out of candy, so we will have to substitute bullets.” – Tariq Aziz, March 2003
We all are stunned and saddened by the abrupt announcement that Tariq Aziz has been condemned to hang. He was found guilty on bogus charges by the illegitimate court in Baghdad that tried various Ba’ath Party officials, including President Saddam Hussein. At that time, he received a sentence of 22 years in prison, assuring he would die before he again saw daylight. Now, he is sentenced to hang. Tariq Aziz was a man of many skills. He was eloquent and represented the Ba’ath government internationally with great aplomb. Once imprisoned by the US, he was badgered into testifying against Saddam Hussein at the president’s equally phony trial. All he had to do was take the stand and make a few discrediting remarks about Saddam Hussein and he probably would have been freed soon after. On the stand, Tariq Aziz did not denigrate Saddam. In fact, he praised him and said he was privileged to be a part of the Ba’ath administration. He refused to capitulate when he could have saved his own skin.
Ibrahim Ebeid’s Response to the Announcment
of Tariq Aziz Receiving the Death Penalty
(October 30, 2010) The news of death sentences against Mr. Tariq Aziz and his comrades, Saadoun Shaker, Abdul Ghani Abdul Ghafoor, Dr.Sabawi Ibrahim al Hassan and Abed Hammoud did not surprise us. These sentences took place to fortify the criminal policies of the occupying powers to rid Iraq of its capable and experi- enced leaders to rule and rebuild Iraq after the illegal invasion of 2003.The judge who passed the assassination sentence was very rude; the expression on his face indicated hate and grudge. Three other judges refused to agree to authorize the sentence but they were forced to sign. We do not know even if there was kangaroo trial or not, but for sure his lawyers only found out about the sentence through the news media. This is American democracy exported through conquest and under the barrels of guns.
The members of the legitimate leadership of Iraq experienced severe torture and inhumane treatment. The martyred president of Iraq was mistreated and tortured and the martyred vice president, Mr. Taha Yassin Ramadan, had to treat his wounds with water and salt. No one was spared the abuse of the malpractice of US democracy.
Some of the detainees died from torture, or deprivation of medical care or adequate nourishment. Some became very frail and died in their cells that were not fit for animals, let alone human beings. Mr. Tariq Aziz, the legitimate deputy prime minister of the legal government of Iraq is no exception. His health is deteriorating very fast and he is rapidly approaching his death in a small decrepit cell. The health of Mr. Aziz is very grave. He suffered strokes. He has no teeth. He cannot speak clearly as a result of the strokes, diabetes and lack of teeth. He was sentenced to death by a court established by the United States to eliminate the leaders of Iraq and all the brains that were behind Iraq political and economic progress. Thou- sands of scientists, doctors, and educators were killed or forced to leave Iraq and Iraq was left for imported criminals to master the art of killing and daylight robberies. Schools, hospitals and all he institutions of Iraq are destroyed. Ignorance and illiteracy is spreading widely under the new generations of US “democracy and libera- tion”
Tariq Aziz never held any administrative post; he was a diplomat representing Iraq abroad. He was brilliant and respected locally and internationally, and he was a victim who was marked for assassination by the sectarian Dawa Party of Maliki. He was wounded at Al Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad while other students were killed by members of Maliki’s party.
I had the honor to know Mr. Aziz and Mr. Abdul Ghani Abdul Ghafoor. They are intelligent, well-educated, and humble, and so are the others. They lived among the people and for the people and they are sacrificing their lives for the liberation of Iraq.
Tareq Aziz did not surrender to the Americans, as the news media say, but his sister informed the Americans where he was about with the intention of saving his life from a heart attack he suffered. The butchers in Baghdad not only killed and tortured Sunni Muslims. Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi, a prime minister under Saddam was tortured to death at a U.S. jail in Iraq on December 2, 2005 at age 67. By the way he was a Shiite. Al Arabia TV broadcast a photo showing a US soldier stepping over his body.
The only reason Tariq Aziz will be hanged is revenge. He is not a criminal. His accusers and the cowardly hangman are the real criminals. He will die with dignity, like Iraq’s president did in 2006. In a reversal of places, the hangmen in 2006 wore masks, while the president refused to don a piece of cloth over his head as he took his last breath. Tariq Aziz and President Saddam Hussein have set a remarkable standard of integrity that all freedom fighters in the world admire. Their legacies will long outlive those of the quislings in Baghdad and the US imperialist actions.
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Iraq’s fallen leaders. Of the above, five have been murdered and two (Sultan Hashim Ahmad and Hussein Rasheed) await the gallows. Top row, left to right: Saddam Hussein — Iraqi President; Ali Hassan al-Majeed — Iraqi General; Awad Hammad Bandar al-Saadoun — Head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court, Bottom row, left to right: Barzan al-Tikriti — Iraqi Intelligence Service; Hussein Rasheed al-Tikriti — Secretary of the General Command of the Iraqi Armed Forces; Taha Ramadan — Iraqi Vice President; Sultan Hashim Ahmad — Iraqi Minister of Defense. |
