A rchive Date
[ 31-01-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Iraq ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/01/30/18176-ap.html
Arabs considering amnesty for Saddam's generals
By DONNA ABU-NASR - Associated Press
Thu, January 30, 2003
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Arab countries are considering an international undertaking to offer amnesty to some of Saddam Hussein's generals to encourage them to overthrow him and avoid a new war, according to Arab officials.
The officials say the undertaking envisions the international community - perhaps through the U.N. Security Council - agreeing to exempt from prosecution all but about 100 of Saddam's top military and political aides, the officials said.
That could encourage some Iraqi generals to overthrow Saddam without fear they might have to answer later for crimes committed by his regime.
Such a move would spare Iraq and the rest of the Middle East from the devastating effects of a new war. The United States and Britain have threatened to launch an attack if Saddam does not surrender weapons of mass destruction, which the Iraqis maintain they no longer hold.
It would also keep intact the Iraqi army in order to maintain order in a post-Saddam Iraq and prevent the country from descending into civil war among rival Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Kurds.
"It's worth telling the Iraqi military leadership that 'if you turn against Saddam, we will forgive you,"' said one official on condition of anonymity, adding that those who didn't turn on their leader could face potential war crimes prosecution.
The official said military commanders and other key figures in the Iraqi government now believe that they must stand by Saddam despite the risks of certain defeat because "if Saddam falls, we all fall."
"You want to create a wedge between him and his leadership and the best way to do it is to just clearly state what happens to people who abandon Saddam," he said.
The officials spoke at a time when Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was in Washington, D.C., for a meeting with President Bush. The official described the amnesty option as "just a train of thought," not an initiative.
Nevertheless, Bush seems open to the idea of Saddam leaving office - voluntarily or by force - as an alternative to war.
"Should he choose to leave the country, along with other henchmen who have tortured ... Iraqi people, we will welcome that, of course," Bush said Thursday. He added, however, that the United States would continue to insist that Iraq disarm, regardless of who governs the nation.
Saudi officials in Riyadh have insisted that they are not actively involved in trying to encourage Saddam to go into exile, despite widespread reports in the Middle East to the contrary.
However, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last week that he favored granting immunity from war crimes prosecution even to Saddam if it would clear the way for him to go into exile.
Those remarks were echoed by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said that if Saddam, his family and top lieutenants were to leave the country, "then in effect we would have a different regime" and the chance to avoid war.
Perhaps in response to such talk, Saddam warned his military commanders this week to be alert for "treason" at this time of national crisis.
"Treason everywhere is a state of weakness, it is the height of human weakness," Saddam said in remarks broadcast by Iraqi television. "The basic prerequisites of proper humanity are sincerity and loyalty, and not treason."
For many Iraqi generals, the fear of war crimes prosecution or retribution from ordinary Iraqis is very real. Many of them have been identified with some of the most brutal acts of Saddam's regime.
Last year, Gen. Nizar al-Khazraji, the exiled former Iraqi army chief of staff, was unable to participate in meetings of Iraqi opposition groups after Danish authorities placed him under house arrest in connection with his alleged role in the 1988 poison gas attacks on Iraqi Kurds that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds.
However, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries have been desperately seeking a way to avoid war, fearing it would destabilize the region and lead to a rise in Islamic militancy.
The Saudis have been the most active among Arab countries in trying to garner support for the no-war option. Prince Saud has already visited several Arab and Western countries, including France and Britain, in an effort to find a diplomatic solution.
On Wednesday, after a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Saud said "we are all seeking to find solutions to the Iraqi issue to evade military action."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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