The capture of Saddam Hussein should focus our thoughts on the future of Iraq, writes Ibrahim Nafie The capture of Saddam Hussein was only a matter of time. Occupation forces, in their systematic sweep of Iraq over the past eight months, have arrested or killed most of the senior members of the former regime. Recently the hunt had homed in on former Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council Ezzat Ibrahim, believed to be the effective commander of the Iraqi resistance while Saddam made occasional appearances on videotape smuggled from his hideout to Arab satellite networks. The recent apprehension of Ibrahim's wife, daughter and personal physician indicated that one of the last major figures in the famous deck of cards was about to fall and that the hunt would soon close in on the ace of spades. The fact is that Saddam Hussein sealed his own fate, and that of his country, long ago. Instead of responding to Arab and international efforts to spare the Iraqi people the tragedy of another futile war he remained determined to lock horns with the world's only superpower. The disaster that befell Iraq was also courted by those sycophants who hailed Saddam as a latter-day Saladdin, fed the megalomania that led him to proclaim that the invaders would meet their death at the gates of Baghdad and encouraged him in the brinkmanship that drove Iraq to the abyss. As early as January last year, following a visit to Washington, I observed that the US had already made up its mind to go to war and that only a courageous decision on the part of Saddam could avert calamity. Rather than heed the voice of reason Saddam stuck resolutely to his collision course, at the end of which lay a lightening war and the fall of Baghdad. No Arab, however much he or she loathed the bloodthirsty despotism of the Saddam regime, could feel anything but immense sorrow at the humiliating capture of the Iraqi capital by foreign forces. This was precisely the sentiment expressed in President Mubarak's statement to Al- Ahram on Tuesday: "I believe everyone still recalls the efforts Egypt and I, personally, exerted over the past years to spare Iraq and its people this painful ending. I had cautioned Iraq repeatedly against the folly of occupying its neighbour and sister Arab country, Kuwait, which I warned would wreak disaster for the Iraqi people and the Arab nation... I sustained these efforts throughout the WMD crisis. Yet, in spite of all my appeals, Saddam and those around him remained deaf to our advice. The result are the events we see unfolding today in Iraq." The former rulers of Baghdad ranked among the most ruthless, cold-blooded dictators in modern history. However, regardless of their character and of the magnitude of the misery they wrought, it is crucial at this juncture that they are accorded a fair trial in accordance with universally held rules and procedures of justice. A just trial is imperative, not only for moral and humanitarian reasons, but also to establish sovereignty of law in a country that, under Saddam, lacked the rule of law for so long. Only then will the arrest and trial of Saddam serve as a sobering lesson to tyrants elsewhere in the world. At the same time we hope that the trial does not divert attention from the need to build a new, free and independent Arab Iraq, restored to its natural place in the Arab regional order. The importance of keeping this priority in mind was stressed by Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher who said, "I hope that [the arrest of Saddam Hussein] will hasten the process of transferring power and sovereignty to the Iraqi people, thereby permitting for the departure of foreign forces as soon as possible." In a similar vein, a Jordanian government spokesperson said: "We hope that a new page has opened for the Iraqi people, one in which they will be able to assume full control over their own affairs and build their future in accordance with the combined will of the diverse sectors of the populace." As such statements suggest, the approach to the arrest and trial of Saddam Hussein should be forward-looking. It should be seen as an opportunity not to dwell, but to draw a curtain, on the past so as to generate a climate conducive to the work of building a free, peaceful and democratic Iraq. As Mubarak told Al-Ahram: "Egypt is ready to do as much as it can to help the Iraqi authorities alleviate the pains of the Iraqi people. We also hope that this will bring the mending of wounds between Arab and Islamic nations and mark a true end to the bitterness and acrimony of the Iraq-Iran war and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait." Finally, we should not allow events in Iraq to distract us from the Arabs' central cause: the end of the Israeli occupation and the creation of an independent Palestinian state. As expected, Israel is already exploiting the capture of Saddam in its campaign to distort the facts of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In one of the most blatant attempts of this sort Israeli Ministry of Defence's Chief of Political Security Major-General Amos Gilad said: "The arrest of Saddam Hussein has sent an important message to the Syrian and Palestinian dictators." This spurious comparison is obviously intended to goad the US into escalating the campaign for sanctions against Damascus and support for Israel's drive to kill or exile the legitimately elected Palestinian president. I doubt this ruse will work, but it nevertheless compels us to ensure that sights remain trained on our ultimate objective: a just and comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is this conviction that inspired Mubarak to urge the US to step up its drive to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and to declare, "We are prepared to do all in our power to cooperate with the US towards this end and to bring the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table so that they can resolve all outstanding issues and bring peace and stability to the region, thereby serving the interests of all its peoples."
