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Saddam's military intelligence chief downplays Anfal role

BAGHDAD, Feb 13, 2007 (AFP) - The former head of Saddam Hussein's military intelligence service took the stand Tuesday in his war crimes trial, protesting that his role was only to gather information not bomb villages.

Sabir al-Duri is one of six defendants in the so-called Anfal trial of aides to the executed former Iraqi dictator charged with involvement in the killing of up to 182,000 Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s.

Among those accused is Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali" because of his alleged enthusiasm for using poison gas in Saddam's war on his country's own Kurdish minority, which prosecutors describe as a genocide.

Tuesday was Duri's day, and he presented a defence statement to the Iraqi High Tribunal insisting that he was innocent of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Questioned by presiding judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah, Duri said his service was responsible only for providing the locations of enemy headquarters for eventual Iraqi air and artillery strikes, and evaluating the result.

"The military intelligence department was responsible for providing the army chief of staff with information, not for giving orders," he stressed.

Duri added that after strikes were carried out, including some with "special weapons," his service evaluated the results and reported back to the army chief of staff, the defence ministry and Saddam's secretariat.

Iraqi forces used chemical weapons against Iranian troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters.

But Duri insisted that "the chemical units were related to the army chief of staff," and that "we could not give military orders that must come from the highest rank."

The judge presented a document Duri had signed, which indicated that Duri's service had suggested targets. The defendant countered that an underling had written the brief "by mistake".

Khalifah shot back that "when you sign it you are responsible for that document. You did sign it and you will take responsibility."

Duri, who remained combative throughout the session, said: "That's right but the statement was wrong and I didn't pay attention to the mistake. I cannot correct it now. It was a mistake and it is done."