CATEGORY:MAJOR DEVELOPMENT
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By Wallace J.A
Inside Grenada correspondent
Friday December 29,2006


FORMER PRESIDENT of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was hanged around 11 pm Grenada time (6 am Saturday morning, Iraqi time). A last minute attempt by one of his lawyers to stop the execution by filing an appeal in a US court failed to yield the desired result. The US judge turned down the appeal.

Saddam, who was in US custody, was handed over to Iraqi officials shortly before his execution. Saddam’s lawyers had made an appeal to members of the international community asking everyone to do what they can to stop the unfair execution.

Saddam Hussein was a Sunni Muslim who ruled Iraq for about 30years until the US invasion of Iraq about 4 years ago which forced him out of power. After a very lengthy trial, Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging for his part in the killing of 148 Shiite men and boys in 1982.

The vast majority of Iraq’s Shiite and Kurds are expected to be happy, now that Saddam is dead, however, this event is expected to anger the Sunni Muslims in Iraq and the spate of sectarian mayhem is expected to increase in intensity. Saddam loyalists had warned that if he was executed then there would be reprisals.

Saddam’s hanging was filmed so that it could be saved as a historical record and be also used to convince skeptics that the former President of Iraq was actually dead.

While some of the Grenadians who spoke to Grenadian Connection (GC) expressed the view that Saddam’s execution was justified in light of the many atrocities he had committed during his rule, many voiced their dissatisfaction with the sentence that was handed down and were of the belief that he did not get a fair trial. The vast majority of the people who spoke to GC believe that Saddam’s death would lead to an escalation in attacks against the West.

Many persons believe that this is something that should be closely monitored by authorities in Grenada and the rest of the Caribbean, since in a few months, the region will be hosting a premier event – Cricket World Cup, 2007 – and visitors from all over the world is expected in the region. What this means is that the security in this ‘regional Paradise’ has to be beefed-up significantly to parallel that of the more developed nations of the world.