Saddam Hussein admitted in court yesterday that he had ordered the trial of Shiites who were later executed in the 1980's, and that their people's farmland be razed.
During the court session prosecutors read from documents, showed satellite images and played audio tapes as they tried to link Saddam to the execution of 148 Shiites from Dujail after an assassination attempt on him in the village in July 1982.
Saddam said:
"I referred them to the revolutionary court according to the law. Awad was implementing the law, he had a right to convict and acquit.
I razed the land. I don't mean I rode a bulldozer and razed it, but I razed it. It was a resolution issued by the Revolutionary Command Council.
It's the right of the state to confiscate or to compensate.
So where is the crime?"
Saddam described the assassination attempt made on him:
"I saw the bullets with my own eyes, I was sitting on the right side."
Saddam couldn't resist taking a "poke" at the current worsening security situation in Iraq, by saying:
"The people must be united," he said. "All religions, all ethnic groups."
Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman replied:
"God willing, we shall be."
The trial has now been adjourned again, until March 12.
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