(12 Sep 2006) SHOTLIST
1. Defendants sitting down in court
2. Chief Judge Abdullah al-Amiri seated in court
3. SOUNDBITE: Ghafour Hassan Abdullah, Witness
"Congratulations! you are in a cage, Saddam,"
4. Saddam standing up in the dock with defendants sitting behind him
5. Chief Judge
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Kurdish lawyer described Kurdish guerrillas, known as peshmargas, as freedom fighters,
7. Chief Judge, Abdullah al-Amiri, stopping Kurdish lawyer and AUDIO of Saddam Hussein shouting "You are agents of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads."
4.Chief Judge with text written on screen reading, "the Judge has cut off all the court microphones".
5.Prosecuting attorney pointing at a map of Iraq
6.Saddam and co-defendants in dock
7. Chief Judge Abdullah al-Amiri
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Saddam Hussein, former Iraq leader:
''I suggest that international experts investigate such cases (the remains of Kurds killed in the attack). Not American experts, I don't regard the American experts as neutral. International experts from Switzerland for example, or other neutral states similar to Switzerland.''
9. Mid shot of al-Amiri
10. Kurdish witness
11. Ex Minister of Defence Sultan Hashim talking to judge
12. Mid shot of al-Amiri
13. Defendant Ali Hassan al-Majeed, Saddam's cousin and ex governor of southern Iraq, talking
14. Defendants in dock
STORYLINE
A Kurdish villager testified on Tuesday that he fled an attack by Saddam Hussein's forces 18 years ago, leaving behind his mother and two sisters. Years later, their identity cards were discovered in a mass grave, he said.
"Congratulations! you are in a cage, Saddam," witness Ghafour Hassan Abdullah taunted as he stared at the ousted president.
Abdullah, 29, gave the chilling account during the trial of Saddam and six others for their roles in Operation Anfal, the 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq during the final stages of the war with Iran.
Saddam has insisted that the crackdown was directed against Kurdish guerrillas who were allied with Iran in the 1980-88 war. If convicted, he and
the other defendants could face death by hanging.
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday after the court heard four witnesses who implicated Saddam and his forces in gassing the Kurds and
conducting mass arrests and killings of civilians.
Abdullah told the court the attack was launched in February 1988 against his village near the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah. Iraqi planes gave cover to
advancing ground troops, who shelled Kurdish communities with artillery, he said.
Abdullah asked rhetorically why the Kurds, a non-Arab minority, was suppressed under the ousted regime.
Saddam listened silently to the witness. But he lost his temper when one of the lawyers described Kurdish guerrillas, known here as peshmargas, as
freedom fighters.
"You are agents of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads," Saddam shouted.
Before the judge cut off his microphone, Saddam demanded that the word peshmarga, Kurdish for sacrifice, be stricken from the trial record.
The prosecution demanded that Saddam's statement be considered a confession.
The presiding judge initially rejected, but took note of the request when the prosecution threatened to walk out.
During the session, Saddam also demanded "neutral" experts who were not American examine the identities of the witnesses and the bodies of people allegedly found in mass graves.
Later Saddam challenged the presiding judge, warning that his patience was wearing thin.
in the offensive.
take shelter in nearby mountains.
1982 assassination attempt against him there.
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