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Saddam was sentenced to death on November 5 for his role in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims from Dujail. Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam's appeal and ordered him executed.
Mohagher Iqbal, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s peace panel, said he has “no sympathy for Saddam but he should have been tried under international law.”
Mae Fe Templa of Gabriela Davao said Saddam’s execution “is not the solution to Iraq’s problem.”
“US intervention plays a key role in the entire nation’s tragedy. The struggle for Iraq’s sovereignty remains a principal concern. The Arab nations may take the hanging as a sign of US control over the region, an event that may unify Islamic states and Muslims towards a just and lasting peace,” she said.
Lawyer Carlos Isagani Zarate, secretary general of the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao, said “in an attempt to prop up the now unpopular and lameduck administration of George Dubya, the US executed him right on the dawn of one of the holiest days of the Sunni religion. In so doing, the US succeeded in killing one of its previously sponsored and favorite dictators but it also made him a martyr in the eyes of his followers. His death will only further the violence and bloodshed in the land once dubbed the cradele of civilization. Damn this American government.” (MindaNews)