The case against Saddam and six co-defendants is tied to the deaths of tens of thousands of people during the Iraqi army's "Operation Anfal", Arabic for "spoils of war" and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

A child walks past the graves of the victims of the so-called Anfal campaign, where tens of thousands of Kurds were killed in the north in the late 1980s, in the village of Sewsenan in Sulaimaniya, north of Iraq, August 18, 2006. Saddam Hussein, the ousted Iraqi president who is awaiting a verdict in his first trial for crimes against humanity, will be in the dock again on Monday for the "Anfal campaign". [Reuters]

The 1987-88 crackdown was aimed at crushing independence-minded Kurdish militias and clearing all Kurds from the northern region along the border with Iran. Saddam accused the Kurds of helping Iran in its war with Iraq.

Kurdish survivors say many villages were razed and countless young men disappeared.

They also accuse the army of using prohibited mustard gas and nerve agents, but the trial does not deal with the most notorious gassing, the March 1988 attack on Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 Kurds. That incident will be part of a separate investigation by the Iraqi High Tribunal.

More than 1,000 survivors and relatives of victims of the Anfal campaign, demonstrated in the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah on Monday, demanding death for Saddam.

"Yes, yes to Saddam trial," the demonstrators chanted.

Khadhija Salih, a housewife who lost five brothers and sisters in the Anfal crackdown and herself spent a period in prison, said: "Today I will have my justice as I will see Saddam in the court."

"It really pleases me to see him face justice," she said. "If I could, I would have killed him myself with great pleasure."

The trial begins as Saddam and seven other co-defendants await verdicts, due October 16, from a trial for their alleged involvement in the killings of more than 148 Shiite Muslims from Dujail as punishment for an assassination attempt on Saddam in the town in 1982.

Critics have decried the first trial's lengthy, sometimes chaotic proceedings.

Human Rights Watch charged Friday that the Iraqi High Tribunal is incapable of fairly and effectively trying Saddam and others on the Anfal charges "in accordance with international standards and current international criminal law."

The New York-based group said the nine-month Dujail trial showed the court's administration to be "chaotic and inadequate," and also complained that the trial relied too heavily on anonymous witnesses. It said the court must "improve its practices if it is to do justice."

The Dujail trial was marred by disorder, with Saddam repeatedly engaging in arguments with the judges and then boycotting the proceedings. Defense teams repeatedly walked out, prompting the appointment of replacements. Three defense lawyers also were assassinated.

A U.S. official close to the tribunal defended its fairness Sunday.

1

2