As the storms embraced on River Tigris

And threw their load up to the skies

A wooden dhow with ragged sails

Itself a helpless toy to the floods

Challenged their furious heart and

Like a bird with broken wings

Torn by the raging winds

Was extinguished

And broke into a thousand parts

 

O make my eye blind to the blood

That dyes red the two streams

For there is no heart in this land

That shall not be broken

 

A dream born of a peaceless dawn

Showed me a grave that ripped open the earth of Iraq

And I saw, led to death

You,

Ra'is Saddam Hussein

I saw the bird of fate darken

Iraq's skies and her sun

I saw a wound in your heart

That dyed the earth in

Scarlet colours

Like a springwell of blood

To bring forth rivers of blood

Gushing out from a cleft deep

As the two rivers' depth

And when they buried you in this earth

Your body cut into her womb

A lethal scar

For a stranger's hand felled you

And thus unsettled her spirit

I saw you defy death

O Saddam

And I saw death defy you

I saw flowers on your grave

assembled yet before

It took you

I heard curses follow you

And I heard prayers unfold tenderly like

Rose petals

 

May God be just

May God be just

 

I heard your last words

Call friend and foe to unite

To protect with their lives the love

Both of them share

I heard your voice call

For all feuds to be settled

And your last prayer that was

For Iraq not to fall

 

Why must a man's heart be

Its own prisoner?

Why must there be things one does not see

Till the end?

Does death end time

Or turn it back?

 

May you forgive o Fatima

The hand that was raised against your children

O Salah-ad-Din and you

Ghows-e-Kurd

Abdul Qadir

For the sake of precious Bhaghdad

Our mother

Her deep-eyed days and pearl-like nights

For the sake of her wounds that are ours

And for the power of healing

Do not hesitate now to forgive

As I am begging Allah to enlighten

This soul

 

What is it

Saddam

That makes me cry over you?

And my heart said: Not you do I lament

But the light that went with you

Not Saddam speaks to it

But the earth of Iraq

 

I saw his grave flooded

With blood

Blood

That dyed red Iraq's earth

Scarlet red

And it tore into her soil

And ripped it

Apart with furious claws and

Asunder

 

Let Mahdi rise his humble voice, however foolish, however much in vain, to speak of his sorrow and his spirit's torment over the fate of a country that has once been the heart and the pulse beat of civilisation, a country of legends and ancient splendour, the country in which Sheherezade's tales were woven, the country in which Hallaj and Attar reached their zenith, the country of Harun Ar-Rashid, of Gilgamesh and the gates of Ishtar, the country of the two streams, a centre and a cross-road of the high cultures of the East and of the peoples that were their foundation.

Today these peoples find themselves captives in the labyrinth of a lethal, vicious and deeply senseless conflict that could have been avoided as we must conclude if we are ready to believe that man is given a certain radius of action.

This bloodshed has been unleashed by the invasion of an army to whom this country and its culture are unknown and inaccessible because to them it means nothing.

A withdrawal of troops at this point in time will not end it but their remaining in the country would perpetuate it.

The history of this country, of the country of Iraq, as well as the history of this conflict has reached a crucial point.

These events, whether or not one is ready to concede this, are decicively connected with the trial of the head of state and intellectual leader of Baathist Iraq, Saddam Hussein, with the verdict reached in this trial and, first and foremost, with the legitimacy of the jury that conducted it.

As each of these points are of highly controversial nature (and not unjustifiedly so) and as the verdict reached by this very jury in these very controversial circumsances is a death sentence, it is easy to understand the terrible consequences for Iraq and her peoples no less than for the region as a whole should this sentence be executed.

Whoever knows Iraqi society will be able to predict that this shall lay the foundation for a final division in the fire of feuds that shall not be settled in a hundred years; feuds that shall tear Iraq in two and into pieces creating a herd of instability that would be a lethal danger to global security. For this has long ceased to be a national or even a regional issue.

This is owed chiefly to the invasion and its nature but a mistake that has been committed (irrespective of the details and of the specific perspectives of those involved) must not be worsened by an even greater mistake.

What every conscentious person owes to the world in which we live and wish to go on living is to avert the most severe threat of all, which lies in the execution of the death sentence handed out to Saddam Hussein by a court which a majority of the Iraqi people and indeed of the international community has reservations recognising. And even if these reservations were to cease, the execution of a personage with the impact of Saddam Hussein under a government that sees itself unable to take charge of its own security, would be the utmost unwise and the most self-destructive action imaginable.

I therefore perceive it as my duty to passionately join the appeal of the international community to convert the death sentence against Saddam Hussein into a sentence of life imprisonment.

This, and only this, can help mitigate the grave conflicts that have erupted in Iraq and provide a basis for future settlement averting a national (and international) catastrophe.

It will further seem recommendable to reopen the trial at a different time, by a different court and with a different jury with the objective of reaching a final verdict and historical evaluation of Saddam Hussein's role in the political development of Iraq.

This is a task not to be taken lightly, and a lot depends on it.

There isn't much time left, and I sincerely hope that these concerns (that are shared by those who have an in-depth-knowledge of the situation) shall be given sufficient consideration before things are allowed to escalate to a point of no return.