"Bringing
Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the
violence in Iraq, but it is an important
milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a
democracy that can govern, sustain, and
defend itself," the US president said
in a statement.
The
former Iraqi president, who was ousted
in April 2003 by a US-led invasion, had
been convicted last month of
crimes against humanity over the killings of
148 Shia villagers from Dujail after a
failed assassination attempt in 1982.
An
appeals court upheld the death penalty on
Tuesday and the Iraqi government rushed
through the procedures to hang him by the
end of the year and before the Eid al-Adha
holiday that starts on Saturday.
The
government had kept details of its plans
shrouded in secrecy amid concerns that it may provoke
a violent backlash from his former supporters
with Iraq on the brink of civil war.
Saddam's
conviction on November 5 was hailed by George
Bush, the US president, as a triumph for
the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq
after the invasion almost four years ago.
With U.S. public support for the war falling
as the number of American dead approaches
3,000, Washington is likely to welcome the
death of Saddam, despite misgivings among many
allies about capital punishment.
But
the hanging could complicate efforts by Nuri
al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, to
heal Iraq's sectarian divisions as
violence between Shia and Sunni Muslims grows
and threatens to pitch the country into
full-scale civil war.
Oppression
During
his three decades in power, Saddam was accused
of widespread oppression of political
opponents and genocide against Kurds in
northern Iraq. His execution means that he
will never face justice on those charges.
Saddam
insisted during his trial that he was still
the president of Iraq. He said in a letter
written after his conviction that he offered
himself as a "sacrifice".
"If
my soul goes down this path [of martyrdom] it
will face God in serenity," he wrote in
the letter.
Issam
Jhazzawi, one of Saddam's defence
lawyers, said on Friday that Saddam's
daughters in Jordan were bracing for his
imminent death.
"The
family are praying for him every minute and
are calling on God that He let his soul rest
in peace among the martyrs," he said.
A source
close to the family said that Saddam's
daughter, Raghd, "is asking that his body
be buried in Yemen temporarily until Iraq is
liberated and it can be reburied in
Iraq".
