Tareq Aziz

World leaders appeal for Tareq Aziz’s life
Iraq is still on the centre stage of world politics. Iraq’s Supreme Court found its former deputy premier Tareq Aziz guilty of deliberate murder and crimes against humanity sentencing to death the long-time international face of the Saddam Hussein regime. There is no word as of yet when Tariq Aziz will be hanged. Aziz surrendered to American forces in 2003 after Baghdad fell. His boss Saadam Hussein, was captured later that year, higing deep inside a hole in the ground and was hanged in 2006.A stone-faced and haggard –looking Aziz listened as Judge Mahmoud Saleh al-Hasan read the verdict. After sufficient evidence against Tareq Aziz that he committed and participated in deliberate murder and crimes against humanity the court decided to issue the death sentence. His role in eliminating religious parties has also been raised. He suffered a stroke on October 22 and was transferred to a hospital in the US base at Balad, 70 kilometers north of Baghdad, a US run prison in the Iraqi capital where he has been detained.
Tareq Aziz was born on April 28, 1936 near Mosul. For eight years, foreign minister during the First Gulf War, he was subsequently appointed deputy prime minister. A Chaldean Christian, he has always made little account of his religious affiliation, in favor of his Arab and Iraqi sentiments. In February 2003 he was also received by Pope John Paul II in last minute attempts by the regime to prevent the invasion of the country. He was the Foreign Minister from 1983 to 1991 and Deputy Prime Minister since 1979 to 2003 of Iraq. He was a staunch activist of the then –banned Ba’ath Arab Socialist Party. His actual name was Mikhail Yuhanna, but he changed his name to Tareq Aziz to allay any hostile sentiments towards his Christian heritage. Aziz studied English at the Baghdad University of Fine Arts and later worked as a journalist, before joining the Ba’ath Party in 1957. In 1963 he was the editor of the newspaper Aj-Jamahir and al Thawra, the newspaper of the Ba’th party. In April 1980 he survived an Iranian –backed assassination attempt carried out by members of the Islamic Dawa Party. In the attack, members of Islamic Dawa Party threw a grenade at Aziz in central Baghdad. The attack killed several people. Aziz had known Saddam since the 1950s, but was kept outside the close Sunni Muslim circle of the president’s fellow clansmen from the central town of Tikrit even as he rose to become the top Christian in the Ba’athist government. Critics of the US-led occupation claimed Aziz was held as a political prisoner to avenge his often eloquent and erudite verbal assaults on Washington and London. After British and US air strikes on Baghdad in 1998, he laid into the international community. In early 2003, Aziz embarked on a high profile of European capitals in a failed bid to prevent the US-led invasion.
Tareq Aziz began to rise through the ranks of Iraqi politics after the Ba’ath party came to power in 1968. He served as a member of the Regional Commander, the Ba’ath Party’s highest governing organization from 974 to 1977 and in 1977 became a member of Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council. In 1979 Aziz became Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq and worked as a diplomat to explain Iraq’s policies to the world. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Tareq Aziz served as the international spokesman in support of the military action. He claimed the invasion was justified because Kuwait’s increased oil production was harming Iraqi oil revenues. He consumed Arab states for ‘subservience to the US hegemony the Middle East and their support for punitive sanctions. On January 9, 1991 Aziz was involved in the Geneva Peace Conference which included the United States Secretary of State, James Baker. The goal of the meeting was to discuss a possible resolution to the occupation of Kuwait. On February 14, 2003 Aziz had an audience with Pope John Paul II and other officials in Vatican City. Where according to a Vatican sentiment he communicated the wish of the Iraqi government to co-operate with international communities . Because of security concerns, Saddam rarely left Iraq, so Aziz would often represented Iraq at high-level diplomatic summits.
In his first interview since Aziz was captured shortly after the fall of Baghdad more than seven years ago, Iraq’s former deputy prime minister and longtime face to the world said ‘the United States would cause the death of Iraq if it continued to withdraw its combat forces.’ ‘We are all victims of America and Britain,’ they killed our country in many ways, when you make a mistake you need to correct a mistake not leave Iraq to its death.’he told the Guardian from his prison cell in Baghdad. Speaking only days after Obama confirmed that the US would be ending its combat mission in Iraq this month with the withdrawal of thousands of troops; Aziz said the country was in a worse state than before the war. For thirty years Saddam built Iraq and now it is destroyed. There are more than sick than before, hungrier. The people don’t have services. People are being killed every day in the tens, if not hundreds. He clandestinely said that Obama is a hypocrite as he is leaving Iraq to the wolves.
‘Wars are wars, and there are reasons for them. He said that Saddam did not lie. He claimed. He did not change the facts. ‘He is someone for whom I have a great respect and love. He is a man who history will show served his country.’ Thus Aziz still proves his loyalty to Saddam. Saddam built the countryman deserved the people. ‘I cannot accept your judgment that he was wrong.’ He threw questions to the world. Didn’t Churchill make mistakes? Didn’t Brown make mistakes? Did the British ministers stand up at that and point out the lives of their leaders? He gives the solution also saying ‘No. they spoke later.’
His love for the country and his clinging to political ideology deserve world’s attention. ‘I was the foreign minister of the country and I had to defend the country and do everything possible to explain our position. I stayed on the side of right.’ Throughout the next decade of UN-enforced sanctions and the oil for food program, Aziz claimed he and Saddam managed to nourish all Iraqis and maintain stability throughout the country. Even during the time of sanctions which is a difficult time in the life of any country every man woman and child was taking 2000 calories per day. Aziz confirmed they had waged war on Iraq for eight years, so Iraqis had right to deter them. Saddam had to defend the dignity of Iraq. He had to show that he was neither wrong nor weak. Bush and Blair lied intentionally. They were both pro-Zionist. They wanted to destroy Iraq for the sake of Israelis, not for the sake of the US and Britain. His tone reflects true love for the country, loyalty towards his boss and attachment to his ideology really deserve salute. The foreign ministry of Moscow, Greek president and Vatican appeal for Tareq Aziz’a life and not to carry out the death sentence on humanitarian grounds. We also endorse their views .
Md. Masum Billah
Program Manager: BRAC Education Program
Cell: 01714-091431
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com