(9 Oct 2006)
1. Wide of defendants in dock
2. Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa
3. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish, translated through Arabic interpreter) Kurdish witness:
"We were basically busy with our agriculture work, we were not following any one (Kurdish militia)."
4. Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa
5. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish, translated through Arabic interpreter) Kurdish witness:
"The question I'd like to ask Saddam: 'I was a farmer, I was at my home what crime did I commit ?"
6. Various of defendants at dock
7. Kurdish witness
8. Pan of of defendants at dock
STORYLINE
Prison guards under Saddam Hussein used to bury detainees alive and watch women as they bathed, occasionally shooting over their heads, a former female prisoner testified Monday in the genocide trial of the ex-president.
Speaking in Kurdish through an Arabic interpreter, the 31-year-old witness recalled what she saw as a 13-year-old Kurdish girl who was detained during Saddam's offensive against the Kurds in the late 1980s.
She was one of the day's four Kurdish witnesses to testify about alleged atrocities.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.
The woman, who testified behind a curtain and whose name was withheld apparently for fear of reprisal, said Iraqi government forces destroyed her Kurdish village in northern Iraq in 1988.
She and some family members were imprisoned in southern Iraq.
The woman said several relatives disappeared during the offensive against the Kurds, branded Operation Anfal.
"The question I'd like to ask Saddam: 'I was a farmer, I was at my home what crime did I commit?" the woman said.
Saddam and his six co-defendants sat quietly in court on Monday when their trial resumed after a 12-day break. They were not represented by lawyers.
Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa had declared a recess after a stormy session on Sept. 26 in which Saddam and his co-defendants were thrown out of court.
The judge said then he wanted to give the defendants time to convince their lawyers to end their boycott of the trial, or to confer with new ones.
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