Welcome to Kafir: Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

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IraqBodyCount.com

Came across this

http://www.iraqbodycount.com/forum/

Saddam trial

Saddam Hussein went on trial today for the killing of nearly 150 Shiites in the town of Dujail in 1982, by pleading not guilty.

"I said what I said, I am not guilty, I am innocent," the former Iraqi dictator told the court after the charges were read out. The other seven defendants also declared they were "innocent".

Earlier, Saddam refused to identify himself when asked and questioned the five-man Special Tribunal's legitimacy. "You know me. You are an Iraqi and you know who I am," he said. "I won't answer to this so-called court. Who are you? What are you?" he asked the chief judge.

Beforehand, Saddam's defense attorney, Khalil Al Dulaimi's, announced that he would seek a three-month delay of the trial for what he viewed as illigitimacy of the court, established in 2003 under the occupation of US forces.

"His morale is very, very, very high and he is very optimistic and confident of his innocence," al-Dulaimi told reporters ahead of the trial. He went on: "We will dispute the legitimacy of the court as we've been doing every day. "We will claim it is unconstitutional and not competent to try the legitimate president of Iraq."

If convicted, Saddam, along with seven other men involved in the killings, face the death penalty by hanging. The others on trial include ex-vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan, Saddam's half-brother and former head of the intelligence service.

In addition to the Dujail case to begin on Wednesday, Saddam faces other several other charges, including the killing of some 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s and the death of 5,000 Kurds in 1988 when Saddam ordered the town of Halabja attacked by poison gas.

The judge who presides over the trial of Saddam has been named on Wednesday. Rizgar Mohammed Amin was unveiled as the senior member of the five-man tribunal just before the hearing was due to start. Amin is a Kurd in his late 40s from the northern city of Sulaimaniya.

AB

Jamaatul Mujahideen

The banned Islamist outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) has reportedly threatened to blow up important installations in some district headquarters if the government does not stop arresting and harassing its activists.

About 400 suspected activists of the outfit were arrested afterthe August 17 countrywide series of bomb blasts, in which three people were killed and over 150 others injured.

In a letter to daily newspapers in the western Kushtia on Monday, JMB asked the district administration not to arrest or harass its activists, otherwise, it will blow up important installations including courts, police stations, municipality, banks, press club, district council and markets, The New Age reported Tuesday.

The Islamist outfit said in the letter, "It is not a threat. Itis the declaration of a jihad as the JMB activists, which are ready to sacrifice their lives for the enforcement of Islamic law in the country."

JMB made similar threats in the recent past at different districts of the country.

Police reportedly has taken adequate measures in this regard, hunting for the militant members of JMB, who allegedly carried outthe near-simultaneous chain bombing across the country on August 17.

Meanwhile, the government has identified another Islamist outfit the Harkatul Jihad-al-Islami (Islamic Movement for Jihad) as a terrorist organization and banned its activities on Monday.

Harkatul Jihad-al-Islami (Huji) is a self-proclaimed terrorist organization and its activities are very sensitive, a press note issued by the home ministry on Monday said, adding that the Bangladeshi government, on the basis of information received, has banned the activities of Huji.

The government announced the ban two months after JMB carried out the bomb blasts on August 17.

Earlier on February 23, the government banned two Islamist outfits the JMB and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (Awakened Muslim People Bangladesh) for "creating anarchy and engaging in subversive activities."

Huji's Bangladesh chapter has been involved in carrying out terrorist activities in the country for more than half a decade. It has been behind several major bomb attacks as well as assassination attempts on former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and some leading intellectuals.

MN

Continuing violence in Southern Thailand

Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, expressed deep concern over the reports about continuing violence against Muslims in Southern Thailand.

In a statement issued to 'Islamic News', he said that the recurring wave of violence would deal a severe blow to the ongoing efforts to reach a peaceful settlement of the Muslims' issue in the region.

According to Prof. Ihsanoglu, the continued acts of violence in Southern Thailand have claimed the lives of innocent Muslim civilians and destroyed their properties.
Some villages have been under siege and some families had to migrate.

The OIC chief sees in the recurring wave of violence a strong blow to the efforts being made to reach a peaceful settlement of the legitimate demands of the Muslim Thai citizens, through dialogue which is considered the only way to establish security, peace and stability in the southern part of the country.

Prof. Ihsanoglu stressed that dealing with the problems in the South from a security perspective will lead to continued violence and deterioration and aggravation of the situation. "Peaceful solution lies in addressing the roots of the problem and attempting to settle it through dialogue and positive handling of the legitimate aspirations of the population of the South," he said while adding that this will help Muslims to maintain and express their cultural identity as well as to manage their local affairs through participation guaranteed by the Thai constitution, by respecting territorial integrity of the country.