Saddam hanging taunts evoke ugly past

By John Simpson World affairs editor, BBC News, Baghdad

A few hours after Saddam Hussein's execution, the Iraqi government put out a videotape of what had happened.

There was no sound on the tape, and it ended at the point where the executioners put the rope around his neck.

Final moments It all seemed weirdly calm and dignified.

Not so. One of the witnesses managed to get a mobile phone into the execution chamber, and recorded the entire event, from the time when Saddam is brought into the chamber, his hands and feet shackled, to the moment when his body is hanging lifeless at the end of the rope.

It is shocking, of course. But the most shocking thing about it is the sound.

Far from being a quiet and dignified business, the new video shows that several of the witnesses taunted Saddam during the last seconds of his life, chanted the name of one of his many enemies, and told him he was going to hell.

Ugly affair >>>cont

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