Arabs say Iraqi violence overshadows fate of Saddam

CAIRO, Dec 27 (Reuters) Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who may hang for his crimes within a month, is less and less relevant against a backdrop of daily massacres in the land he once ruled with an iron fist, Arabs said today.

An appeals court in Baghdad confirmed yesterday the death sentence against the former president, who was overthrown in the US invasion of 2003 and convicted this year of crimes against humanity.

It said he should hang within 30 days.

Some Arabs said they were worried that executing him would exacerbate the sectarian violence in Iraq, where much of the killing is between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim groups.

But others said the violence in Iraq had a dynamic of its own and hanging Saddam would make little difference.

''I'm not sure how many people are still interested in the fate of one individual given what's going on in Iraq and the rest of the region,'' said Sami Baroudi, a political science professor in Beirut.

Abdel-Khaleq Abdullah, professor of political science at Emirates University, said: ''Saddam's execution will be one less ... bad person for the whole world. It will not have an effect on the big mess Iraq is in now. He has become negligible.'' ''Maybe Saddam Hussein deserves execution ... but who holds the Americans responsible for the 600,000 dead Iraqi civilians in the past three years? That's more than Saddam killed in 30 years,'' added Safaa Fadlallah, 40, who works in a Beirut shop.

''In the time of Saddam Hussein, people were safe in Iraq. Now we turn on the television and hear hundreds of people are being killed every day,'' asked a 54-year-old Egyptian shop assistant who asked not to be named. ''It is better to have a tyrant who keeps his people safe than a situation where shots are constantly being fired in the street.'' Fatima Haddad, a Sunni Muslim housewife in the Gulf state of Bahrain, said: ''What you see in Iraq is much worse than anything under Saddam.'' ''COUNTING THE DAYS'' Many Arabs applauded the conviction of Saddam, even if they have doubts about the legitimacy of a trial which took place while US troops are present in Iraq.

''Whether we have doubts about the trial or not, the verdict is just,'' said Bara Moussa, a human rights activist in Syria.

''He is a person responsible for the backwardness and the suppression of the people of his country and so he deserves this sentence. Other countries should follow this example.'' But some said Saddam deserved life imprisonment rather than execution and that killing him would make matters worse.

Ghassan Charbel, the editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat, wrote that Saddam's crimes paled in comparison with what he said was a plan to wipe out Iraq.

''I know that many people dream of seeing Saddam Hussein dead.

They are counting the days and preparing to dance. They want revenge for their relatives,'' he said.

''But the sight will compound the agony. The corpse of Saddam Hussein will set the fire ablaze ... It will reinforce the plan to wipe out Iraq. Those who rejoice at the Iraqi scene today must take another look at their calculations,'' he added.

Azzam al-Ahmad, the Palestinian official in charge of dealing with Palestinians in Iraq, said: ''His presence in prison ignites violence in Iraq. If the verdict is carried out, then the situation will explode even more.'' ''There was strong retaliation when he was tried. What will be the reaction when he is executed? It will be beyond imagination. The sectarian violence will be unprecedented,'' added Mohammad Mostafa, an engineer in the West Bank.

Ahmed, the Palestinian official, was one of the few to praise Saddam. ''Saddam will remain a prominent Arab leader inside and outside Iraq. He served the Arab cause despite the few mistakes and differences with the others,'' he said.

In Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for Islamist movement Hamas, said the United States wanted to hang Saddam Hussein as an example for ''all others who may not agree with the Zionist-American policies in the region''.

REUTERS PB BD1900