Will sending symbols of the old regime to the gallows make life easier for Iraq's US-backed Green Zone government, asks Doaa El-Bey Saddam Hussein's half brother and intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti and the former head of Saddam's Revolutionary Court Judge Awad Hamed Al-Bandar were executed in the early hours of Monday, just 16 days after the hanging of Saddam Hussein. The executions took place in the former military intelligence headquarters north of Baghdad. The three were accused of committing crimes against humanity. In Monday's executions, the Iraqi government was cautious to avoid repeating the mistakes it had made during Saddam's execution. The execution committee was keen to show that it respected all laws and rules during the proceedings, and stressed that no violations took place. "Those present signed documents pledging not to violate the rules or otherwise face legal penalties. All the people present abided by the government's rule and there were no violations," Ali Al-Dabbagh, the Iraqi government spokesman, said in a statement after the executions. He chose his words carefully and emphasised that no one had shouted slogans, or taunted the condemned men. Saddam's execution had instigated an international controversy, and criticism of the Iraqi government after a video of the execution, recorded on a cell phone camera, showed Saddam being goaded on the gallows. Before he died, some of those in attendance could be heard chanting "Muqtada, Muqtada, Mutqada!" the name of a radical Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr whose Mahdi Army militia is believed responsible for the deaths of many thousands of Sunnis in the past year. The chanting made the execution seem to be an act of vengeance from the Shia-dominated government against a Sunni former president. Nevertheless, Tikriti and Bandar's execution was condemned widely as lacking in propriety. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who underlined Iraq's sovereign right to choose its own form of punishment, said she was disappointed by the manner in which the executions were carried out. Speaking at a press conference at the end of her visit to Egypt, she said: "We were disappointed there was not greater dignity given to the accused, under these circumstances." Human rights group Amnesty International slammed the hangings, saying the men "should have had a fair trial". A spokeswoman for UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said he "regrets that despite pleas from both himself and the high commissioner for human rights to spare the lives of the two defendants, they were both executed." British Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said Monday that the way in which Saddam Hussein's half- brother was executed was "wrong" after it emerged that he was decapitated during the hanging. Ghassan Al-Attiya, a prominent Iraqi politician, says that the execution of Saddam and his two aides was a serious mistake. He told Al-Ahram Weekly that if the executions aimed to achieve a political goal, it was either the wrong goal, or a one that could have devastating consequences. "At a time when reconciliation is required, a life sentence for Saddam and his aides would have been a winning gesture, or a trump card in the hands of the government," he said. Even if the execution aimed to underline justice, Attiya asked how justice could prevail in a state of lawlessness, where at least 50 Iraqis die every day. "I am against capital punishment in general, and in our case it takes the shape of revenge rather than political justice," he added. The brutality of the execution was underlined by Tikriti's decapitation. Basem Ridha, an advisor to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, termed the "incident" an "act of God". "This happens seldom, but it did happen, and there was an act of God and it was a normal process. It's happened before," said Ridha. In order to prove that Tikriti's body was not mutilated or mistreated in any way, the government showed the official video of Monday's hanging to selected journalists. The video showed Tikriti's body falling in an orange suit after the trap door swung open. His head fell a few meters away, still covered in the black hood placed upon him moments before the execution. Officials did not plan to release the video publicly, however, hoping to avert a repeat of the outrage that accompanied images of Saddam's execution that circulated on the Internet. Attiya believes that the Iraqi government's failure to properly handle the executions is further proof of its weakness. "If the government fails to perform properly in a 16-square metre execution room, how can it perform in a whole state?" he asked. By carrying out the sentence quickly, and disregarding international calls to spare Tikriti and Bandar, it appears Prime Minister Maliki aimed to close a troubled chapter of Iraq's history and start afresh. However, the execution enraged Sunnis and violence has further spiralled in Iraq. In the deadliest attack in Iraq in nearly two months, twin car bombs tore through a leading Baghdad university as students left classes on Tuesday. A total of 142 Iraqis were killed or found dead in what appeared to be a renewed campaign of Sunni insurgent violence against Shia targets. Maliki blamed the attack on "terrorists and Saddamists" seeking revenge for Monday's hanging. Authorities reported at least 55 people killed or found dead on Monday, and the US military announced the deaths of two more soldiers, both killed in Baghdad. Tensions between Sunni and Shia communities worsened after the execution of Saddam Hussein. Attiya believes that further executions will not put an end to the cycle of violence in Iraq. He said that national reconciliation is the last card in the hand of the government. "Without it, Iraq would substitute one dictator for another. The power would always be in the hands of extremist powers that have militias and weapons. Moderates would be marginalised and Iraqi citizens would either emigrate or be forcibly displaced, as has already happened to thousands of Iraqis," he added. Tikriti and Bandar were convicted along with Saddam of the murder of 148 Shia villagers in the town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982. Saddam was executed four days after the appeals court upheld the death sentence. Both Tikriti and Bandar were buried late Monday near Saddam in the village of Ouja, on the outskirts of Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam, north of Baghdad. In another development, a UN report stated Tuesday that more than 34,000 Iraqis died violent deaths in 2006, often after being tortured. Pointing to raging sectarian violence that has rocked Baghdad as the main cause of civilian deaths, the UN said on average 94 people died per day in 2006. A further 36,685 people were wounded in attacks around the violence-wracked country. The UN report also said "at least 470,094 people have been forcibly internally displaced since the bombing in Samarra -- a Shia shrine -- in February 2006." Baghdad, which emerged as the epicentre of sectarian conflict, has 38,766 displaced individuals.
