Saddam's enemies rejoice, many Arabs angry

BEIRUT, Dec 30 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein's enemies rejoiced, his supporters seethed with anger and many Arabs felt outraged at his hanging on the holiest day of the Muslims year.

Sympathisers with the former president painted him as the victim of a vengeful Iraqi trial sponsored by the United States. Some in Kuwait and non-Arab Iran complained that Saddam had not been brought to account for the wars he launched against them.

Many Arabs said his hanging for crimes against humanity was provocatively timed to coincide with the Muslim Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) and would worsen violence in Iraq.

The drama of Saddam's violent end today was brought into living rooms across the Arab world with television pictures of masked hangmen tightening the noose around his neck. Separate film of Saddam's body in a white shroud also upset many viewers.

''This is the worst Eid ever witnessed by Muslims. I had goosebumps when I saw the footage,'' said Jordanian woman Rana Abdullah, 30, who works in the private sector.

Hesham Kassem, an Egyptian newspaper publisher and human rights activist, said airing the images was controversial, but added: ''This man was one of the most brutal mass murderers in the history of mankind. He stands alongside Hitler and Stalin.'' But in the impoverished Iraqi village where Saddam was born, residents vowed revenge. ''We will all become a bomb,'' said one young man in Awja, 150 km north of Baghdad.

Libya, the only state to show solidarity with Saddam in his death, declared three days of mourning and cancelled public Eid celebrations. Flags on government buildings flew at half-mast.

While many Arab governments refrained from comment, a senior aide to Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called the execution ''a tragic end to a sad phase in Iraq's history''.

''We hope that the Iraqi people would focus on the future to be able to pass this stage, stop the violence and achieve reconciliation,'' Hesham Youssef told Reuters in Cairo.

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said Arabs wondered who most deserved to face trial: ''Saddam Hussein, who preserved the unity of Iraq, ... or those who engulfed the country in this bloody civil war?'' No street unrest was reported in Arab capitals, where Muslims were preoccupied with the Eid al-Adha holiday, but thousands of Indians, mostly Muslims, staged anti-US protests.

RISK TO U.S. INTERESTS? Tajeddine El Husseini, a Moroccan international economic law professor, said Saddam's ''symbolic sacrifice'' on a religious day when Muslims slaughter animals would make things worse.

''There is the risk that Baathist elements could strike US interests even outside Iraq,'' he said.

In Afghanistan, the first target before Iraq in the US-declared ''war on terror'', a Taliban commander said Saddam's demise would galvanise Muslim opposition to the United States.

''His death will boost the morale of Muslims. The jihad in Iraq will be intensified and attacks on invader forces will increase,'' Mullah Obaidullah Akhund told Reuters by telephone.

News of Saddam's death shocked Palestinians, many of whom had seen him as an Arab hero for his missile attacks on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War that ended Iraq's occupation of Kuwait.

''The Americans wanted to tell all Arab leaders who are their servants that they are like Saddam, nothing but a sheep slaughtered on Eid,'' said Abu Mohammad Salama at a Gaza mosque.

Hamas lawmaker Mushir al-Masri said Saddam's execution was a ''proof of the criminal and terrorist American policy and its war against all forces of resistance in the world''.

In Kuwait, where Saddam is reviled for his 1990 invasion, parliament speaker Jasim Mohammad al-Kharafi hailed the execution, saying it had brought the country ''two Eids''.

But Ahmed al-Shatti, a Health Ministry official, said Saddam had not answered for the ''atrocities'' he committed in Kuwait.

In Shi'ite non-Arab Iran, Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Reza Asefi said the hanging of the man who led Iraq into a costly war with the Islamic Republic in the 1980s was a victory for Iraqis.

But Yousef Molaee, an Iranian international law expert, also took the view that the dawn execution was a failure for justice.

''Saddam's crimes in the eight-year war against Iran, such as chemical bombardments, remained unanswered because of the hasty and unfair trial,'' state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying.

In Mecca, Sunni Arab pilgrims voiced outrage that Iraqi authorities had executed Saddam on a major religious holiday.

''His execution on the day of Eid ... is an insult to all Muslims,'' said Jordanian pilgrim Nidal Mohammad Salah.

Ahmed Al Mudaweb, a political editor at Bahrain's Al Watan daily, said the former president's hanging would give him martyr status and spur the insurgency by his fellow Sunnis in Iraq.

Jordanians, once fervently pro-Saddam, said his execution for the 1982 killings of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites, was incongruous.

''He surely wasn't the only tyrant in the world. The irony is he was tried and hanged for a small crime when he committed worse,'' said Aline Saeed, a marketing director.

REUTERS LL PM2100