Red Cross monitoring hunger strikers ahead of trials

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is closely monitoring former Baath Party hunger strikers, who have complained about the legality of their detentions and that of future trials, an ICRC spokesman told IRIN in Jordan. In response, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said on Tuesday that war crimes trials would start next week, putting an end to speculation. Earlier, Allawi said that trials could start in October or November next year, while others said trials would begin in 2006. Among those awaiting trial is former Iraqi preseident Saddam Hussein. Eight of Saddam’s 11 senior lieutenants reportedly stopped eating over the weekend in protest, but started eating again on Monday. Saddam reportedly did not join the hunger strike. His lawyers, based in Jordan, issued a statement earlier this week protesting against a US refusal to let them see him. "We're very much concerned with following all health conditions of all detainees, not just one particular one," Muin Ibrahim Kassis, an ICRC spokesman, told IRIN. "Former officials are not exceptional. We do this as part of an overall process," he added, noting that the ICRC does not comment publicly on detention conditions. It has, however, visited thousands of prisoners being held by Iraqi and US forces, although it is not currently present in Iraq, Kassis said. Allawi announced a date for the trials a year and a day after former president Saddam Hussein was captured near his birthplace in Tikrit. "I can tell you clearly and precisely that, God willing, next week the trials of the symbols of the former regime will start, one by one, so that justice can take its path in Iraq," Allawi said. But Saddam is not expected to be called in the first batch of hearings, with mountains of evidence against the former president still to be assessed. Key figure in Saddam's inner circle, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," is expected to be first on trial, according to news reports. At the same time, government leaders ousted Salem Chalabi, the tribunal director, in September. And some officials say it's impossible to start a trial without training new judges and prosecutors and sort through the evidence. Seven charges have been presented against Saddam, who is being held with other senior regime figures at an undisclosed location, believed to be near Baghdad airport. The charges include gasing thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988; the 1990 invasion of Kuwait; suppressing 1991 revolts in southern Iraq by Kurds and Shi'ites; murdering religious and political leaders and displacing Kurds in the 1980s under his "Arabisation" programme.