Tuesday, December 21, 2004

JUSTICE

I was and still preoccupied by the concept of justice. Dose it originate inside every human being, and if it was there inside a human being would he/she be aware of it. And if this human being was aware of it, would he/she willingly put it into practice.

It seems that some individuals when they have the opportunity to behave meanly, they do. There is no difference between persons from different cultures.
What differ are the elite which enforce law.

The difference, between the elite of ours and that of the developed world, becomes clear when we make a comparison between Saddam’s regime and any western government. Saddam made many ridiculous laws. For example there was a law called (martyr of anger). This law makes it legitimate, for Saddam, to kill anybody he feels suspicious about his loyalty or intentions. If Saddam discovers, after execution, that person was innocent then all his ‘rights’ would be granted to his family.

A British court ruled in favor of an Iraqi citizen against the British Ministry of Defense. This is justice. Though it is imperfect, but there is a dynamic system which works on improving it.
The British soldiers conduct reflects seizing the opportunity to behave meanly which I thought it to be existing in our retrograding societies only.
Once more I repeat my certainty which says (No justice No great nation).

Saddam viewed judges and judicial system as toys which he can play with. In the mid of 1990s an incident happened between a bodyguard of Qusay (one of Saddam's sons) and another person. The two guys quarreled over a prostitute in a private party. The bodyguard drew a gun to shoot his rival. The other guy jumped on him, managed to snatch the gun and killed the bodyguard.

The case came to trail. Qusay ordered the court to hang the killer. According to the Iraqi law, since the accused had not had an earlier intention of killing the bodyguard and the gun owned and drawn by the victim, the maximum sentence is not death and that was the court rule. Qusay started to become angry. Appeal was made with strict orders from Qusay to hang the accused. The court of appeal couldn't change the judgement since the law is clear about the case circumstances. Qusay anger multiplied, so the case was finally taken to Supreme Court of Appeal in Iraq with the same strict orders from Qusay to hang the accused.

Head of Supreme Court of Appeal in Iraq relates "After reading the case dossier I became puzzled about what to do. When I had been chosen for the position by Saddam, he told me to be completely bound to law and to enforce law in the judicial system. As a solution, I called the whole board members of the court for a meeting. After discussing the case, we decided that the case to be taken back to the first court which had passed the main judgement with a recommendation to revise it.
The first court approved its main judgement, though the strict orders of Qusay were accompanied with the dossier. And the same scenario repeated in the other two courts".

As a result of not obeying the orders of Qusay, a presidential decree signed by Saddam was issued. The whole judges who had agreed on the lawful sentence were fired. And to humiliate them, the decree ordered to degrade their judicial title to the lowest one. Their pension was calculated according to the lowest degree.
The fired head of Supreme Court of Appeal adds "I was and still in great confusion and puzzlement about what Saddam had told me and what happened later".
For me, this story added corroborating evidence which assured me that Saddam was hastening to his end.

7 Comments:

Blogger Pat in NC said...

My prayer for Iraq is peace, a government of the people and the rule of law. How long it will take to achieve
and how long the current struggle will last I do not know, but I have faith in God to deliver his people.

12:43 AM  
Blogger Mike H. said...

Justice comes from the requirement to answer to a higher authority. The people answer to the law and the government answers to God. The people make sure that the government answers God properly. Far too many times the rulers think that they are the final voice in the ladder of responsibility, and they're not perfect.

1:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ibn,
I am an ex. Iraqi and very grateful for your posts and other decent Iraqi blogs who support democracy. You Iraqi civilians living under constant threat from terrorists are the bravest of all people.

Re Justice,
What I pray every day is for God to administer his justice upon the killers of the innocent. I don't know when we will see peace and justice prevail in Iraq. I am convinced that unless the ordinary decent Iraqi people provide more counter-Saddamist intelligence to the MNF and Iraqi government there will be many more innocent lives lost. Look at Mosul, which has erupted since Fallujah was cleaned. Why are the MNF, ING, etc seemingly unable to control and contain the terrorist activities there? Decent Iraqis have to do more undercover work and pass useful info for the MNF forces to carry out accurate raids and arrests. This would then build public confidence and help speed up attain security which is still the biggest problem.

And, finally, why did they allow Saddamist people to demonstrate in a Mosul street today - after the US canteen was bombed - and to carry a Saddamist flag? shouldn't some of them have been arrested and interrogated? What is the MNF strategy in Mosul, does anybody know?

Good luck for a peaceful Iraq sooner than later.

2:14 AM  
Blogger Papa Ray said...

Greetings Ibn,

I hope you and yours are safe and healthy.

Justice, depends on what side of the issue you are on.
It also should not be influenced by emotion. Using religion to inflame or incite murder and violence is as old as mankind, but it does not result in JUSTICE.


But, I tell you I have quite a bit of emotion right now. I am in a rage and need to back off and try to be more objective.

The people that took credit for the attack on the "US Mess Hall" today need a little JUSTICE.

Here is a video where they explain which side of the issues they are on and to try and recruit and convice young men (and women?) to die for their religion.

Here is the closing paragraph.
"God’s religion is more precious than any valuable, and the crusaders have decided to fight Islam and eradicate Muslims. The dwell has started and Paradise angels have readied themselves".

I have to say,they make their position very clear. It appears that the only thing we can do, is make their dreams of seeing the "Paradise angels" come true.

http://tides.carebridge.org/Videos/Rayat.wmv
(this is a large file and the video and audio is poor)

Here is the english translation

http://tides.carebridge.org/Translations/RAYAT-verbatim.htm


Stay safe and continue your efforts, we appriciate it.

This is my post

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

5:32 AM  
Blogger Papa Ray said...

Greetings again, Ibn

Here is the view from the other side of the issue by a Military Chaplin who was at the base today where the attack on the "Mess Hall" occured.

His words, echo the people that caused the carnage.

"I'm where God wants me and wouldn't change that for anything, even if it means death. After all, "to die is gain".

His blog and the story is here:

http://chaplain.blogspot.com/

If justice originates inside every human being, it must be colored and shaped by his/her life. Because of this, people that administer justice must be ruled and bound, themselves, by rules, regulations, laws, and a strict honor to uphold those laws.

Otherwise it just won't work.

This is my post

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

8:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with you on the law and the importance of the quality of enforcement. In a democracy one of the things people must be continually watchful of is the law. There can be too many or too few laws. When there are too few, those who for whatever reason never seem to comprehend the idea of justice, can do great harm. The same seems to happen when there are too many laws. Finding the balance and then making sure that each law is in fact necessary for the greater good becomes an ongoing challenge, but when that balance is struck (or close anyway), those who behave meanly by nature seem to be less in number and more easily spotted. The balance also makes an even hand in enforcement easier, which more who understand justice.

7:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You are so right, Ibn Alrafidain. There are good and bad people everywhere, and the difference is indeed justice. Justice only comes about when the people demand it.

Keep "thinking loudly", the world is beginning to listen.

Tennessee, USA

2:51 AM  

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