A rchive Date
[ 21-11-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Denmark ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2002/11/20/5041-ap.html
Former Iraqi general under house arrest
By JAN M. OLSEN - Associated Press
Wed, November 20, 2002
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - Gen. Nizar al-Khazraji, a former Iraqi chief of staff, was placed under house arrest after saying he wants to leave Denmark, the country's prosecutor for special international crimes said Wednesday.
Al-Khazraji, a hero of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war whom Saddam fired as chief of the army in 1990, defected in 1995 and has sought asylum in Denmark, where he now faces an investigation of charges he was responsible for a poison gas attack on Iraqi Kurds in 1988. He denies the allegation and has support from some Kurds.
Al-Khazraji's name has surfaced as one of several potential interim leaders should Saddam be ousted, either in a U.S. military attack or by an internal uprising or both.
In a country divided between the Shiite and Sunni strains of Islam, Al-Khazraji is from the Sunni sect that has dominated Iraq since its independence in 1922. He is the highest-ranking officer to defect from Saddam's ranks and is believed to enjoy support inside the army.
Those attributes - and his habit of staying out of squabbles within the Iraqi opposition community - have led some to suggest he is Iraq's equivalent of Hamid Karzai, leader of the interim government of Afghanistan.
In an interview with The Associated Press in March, al-Khazraji indicated Saddam's days as Iraqi ruler were coming to an end. "I can't talk about details. Next year this time of the year, we will be home," al-Khazraji said at the time.
Danish authorities say they are obliged to investigate the gassing claims under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which calls for countries to prosecute or expel war criminals.
Prosecutor Birgitte Vestberg has said that she gathered material from different sources for her investigation. She didn't name those sources or say who made the gassing claims.
A court in Soroe, 60 miles southwest of the capital, Copenhagen, ordered al-Khazraji's house arrest Tuesday. Al-Khazraji has lived in the town since 1999 in a four-room apartment, which he now cannot leave without permission. The house arrest order means he must regularly report to the police.
"The reason (for house arrest) was that he said that he wanted to travel out of Denmark as soon as possible," Vestberg told The Associated Press. "Thereby he would have avoided a criminal investigation."
Al-Khazraji, who insists he doesn't want a career in politics, said he was fired as head of the Iraqi army after he criticized the invasion of Kuwait that led to the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He was eventually place under house arrest before fleeing Baghdad, initially to Jordan.
After being place under house arrest Tuesday in Denmark, the former chief of staff complained the measure would keep him from meeting with opposition figures, now set to convene a unity conference in December in London. The gathering has been delayed by internal bickering and rivalries among Iraqi opposition groups and was moved from its planned location, Brussels, Belgium, after authorities created difficulties with visas.
"I have been without a passport and I do need to travel," al-Khazraji told AP by telephone Wednesday. "I want to travel to see my friends and my colleagues abroad and I want to attend meetings and conferences, but I am unable to move because I am ... restricted."
Vestberg, head of the newly created office for special international criminal cases, said she was investigating whether al-Khazraji can be charged with crimes against humanity and violating the Geneva Conventions for his alleged activities against the Kurds. Denmark began investigating him in 2001. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
"I cannot say when a trial could start, I cannot say when the investigation is finished," Vestberg said. "No one can say whether there will be trial at all."
The investigation clearly hampers al-Khazraji's ability to gain support as a replacement for Saddam.
"I have my plans for regime change in Iraq but I do not feel free and able to work," al-Khazraji told AP.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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