Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti died at the hands of Iraqi officials at dawn on 30 December 2006 following a tumultuous fourteen month trial for crimes committed against the citizens of a relatively obscure Iraqi village known as al-Dujail. Prior to the sporadic small arms fire on 8 July 1982 that was perceived by Saddam as an attempted assassination, the Trial Judgment describes al-Dujail as a ‘safe town … rich in fruit gardens irrigated from the Tigris river through canals and water pumps’. The people of Dujail enjoyed a good standard of living, and the local party membership ‘was mixed between Shiites and Sunnites’. Iraqi citizens were imprisoned in the aftermath of that July day; many were tortured and dozens were murdered. An eyewitness testified at trial that three months after the incident, the fields and orchards of Dujail were razed and all of the fruit trees carted off and destroyed by regime tractors, bulldozers, international type cars and six-wheel drive vehicles For specialists in international humanitarian law, the conviction of these acts as the crime against humanity of inhumane acts may become the very embodiment of that catch-all crime. Destroying the sustenance and prosperity of and entire village is the epitome of acts ‘intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to the body or to the mental or physical health’. The al-Dujail trial is a metaphor for our common struggle to build the rule of law around the world.
