"Chemical Ali" says ordered Kurd villages cleared

BAGHDAD, Jan 11 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein's cousin today told a court trying him for genocide that he ordered troops to ''execute'' all those who ignored government orders to leave villages during a military operation against Kurds in 1988.

''Yes, I gave my instructions to consider these villages as prohibited areas and I gave orders to the troops to catch anyone they find there and execute them after investigating them,'' Hassan al-Majeed, known as ''Chemical Ali'' said.

''I'm responsible for the displacing and I took this decision on my own, without going back to the High Military Command or the Baath Party commander. I say that before your court and before God,'' he told the court.

Majeed and five former senior Baath party official are being tried for their roles in the 1988 Anfal (Spoil of War) military campaign in which prosecutors say up to 180,000 people were killed, many of them gassed.

Saddam, who was executed on December 30 for crimes against humanity for killing Shi'ites in a previous trial, had been a defendant in Anfal. The judge formally dropped charges of genocide against Saddam following his execution, but proceedings have continued against the other defendants.

Majeed, who faces the possibility of death if found guilty, is considered the main enforcer of Anfal, in which thousands of villages declared ''prohibited areas'' were razed and bombed as part of an scorched-earth campaign.

The defendants have said Anfal was a legitimate military target against Kurdish guerrillas in northern Kurdistan who had sided with Iran during the last stage of the Iraq-Iran war.

REUTERS SB BD2019