the ruling was not expected to improve life for the country’s Christians and other minorities.
A visibly shaken Saddam shouted "God is great" and "Long live Iraq" as the court’s chief judge delivered the final verdict, death by hanging, to him and two co-defendants. The Iraqi High Tribunal convicted Saddam of ordering the killing of 148 Shi’ite men in the village of Dujail, just north of Baghdad, in 1982.
Two of Saddam’s co-defendants, including his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikrit) and the former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bander were also sentenced to death. There were scenes of jubilations in several areas of Baghdad where people watched the procedures live on local television.
But elsewhere reactions were mixed. In the town of Tikrit, 140 kilometers (87.5 miles) northwest of Baghdad, crowds were seen holding up images of Saddam Hussein to protest the death sentence verdict. A former vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, received life in a prison where he had sent many dissidents before while three others received 15 year sentences. An eighth was cleared of all charges.
APPEAL EXPECTED
The death sentences were expected to be appealed, but it was not immediately clear when that case would begin. However news of the sentencing was expected to add to concerns among Iraq’s Christians about possible attacks by Islamic militants loyal to the previous regime and insurgents opposed to what they see as the pro-American government. Christians have often been seen by militants as supportive to the US-led coalition, where some of them have find jobs.
Thousands of Iraqi Christians have already fled Iraq and human rights groups say attacks against Christian believers increased in recent weeks. In a statement, Dutch aid group ‘Kerk in Nood’, or ‘Church in Need’ said several Catholic facilities, including a seminar, one convent, five church buildings, and a Vatican-backed university had been closed in Baghdad’s Dora District, known as ‘The Vatican of Iraq.’
The group said about 700 Christian families have been forced to flee the area by “Sunni [Muslim] militias.” Two priests, identified as chaldeese priest Saad Sirup Hanna of Saint Jacob’s Church, and Basil Yaldo, the headmaster of Saint Peter’s Seminary, were allegedly tortured since their detention in August, before being released recently.
MIXED FEELINGS
Fellow believers in the United States meanwhile have mixed feelings on the US presence in post-Saddam Iraq. Backing for the conflict has dimmed even among the once solidly supportive evangelical community, polls published by Reuters news agency show.
Public opposition to the war — polls show a solid majority of more than 60 percent of Americans opposed — was seen as a major reason why President George W. Bush’s Republican Party is battling to retain control of the U.S. Congress in the upcoming elections on Tuesday, November 7.
With far higher church attendance rates in the United States than in other parts of the rich industrialized world church stances on the war, as on other issues, loom large in politics, analysts say. Among mainstream Protestant denominations, leaders of the United Methodist Church have been vocal in their criticism of Iraq.
AFRICAN CHURCHES
Many African-American churches have also come out in opposition to the war, and the message is heard loudly in countless services every Sunday. On the other side of the divide are the largely white evangelical Protestants, who have been bedrock of support for the Republican Party.
Evangelicals are reeling from a scandal after Ted Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and admitted on Friday that he bought the drug methamphetamine and sought a massage from a gay male prostitute. He denied using the drug or having sex with the man.
Many conservative evangelical Christians view the Iraq conflict as it is presented by the administration — as an essential part of the war on terrorism declared by Washington after the Sept. 11 attacks.
SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES
"If people see we are taking the war to the terrorists instead of fighting it on US soil, then there is more support for it (among social conservatives)," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobby group with strong evangelical ties, told Reuters.
Other conservative Christians go far beyond the administration view, with a stance that sees the Iraq war and war on terrorism as part of a "clash of civilizations" or unfolding Biblical prophecy, Reuters reported.
Several evangelical groups are also active in Iraq, despite difficulties to operate there. Some estimates suggest there are up to 750,000 Christians in the troubled nation, but others say that figure could be less as believers continue to flee the violence. (Stay with BosNewsLife for continues coverage).
