The first woman to testify in the trial of Saddam Hussein on Tuesday broke down in tears, in fear of her life. She testified behind a curtain about how she was forced to strip by Iraqi prison guards.Identified only as ‘‘Witness A’’, she said she was beaten with cables by Saddam’s guards after being forced to strip, and was fed bread through a tiny window in a prison cell, which she shared with a young girl.The woman was held with hundreds of others rounded up after an attempt on Saddam’s life in the village of Dujail in 1982. She said she had been moved from one prison to another over four years during Saddam’s rule, and had spent a bitter winter at the Abu Ghraib jail in western Baghdad.From Abu Ghraib she was driven through the Iraqi desert to another jail. The witness said she saw camels by the side of the road during the journey. ‘‘I was envious because they were free,’’ she said.A second witness, an elderly woman, told the Baghdad court that she had been taken away by Saddam’s men along with her husband, five daughters and two sons.Saddam, accused of crimes against humanity and facing possible execution, sat largely impassively through the fourth hearing of his trial after a stormy session on Monday when he argued with judges, lawyers and witnesses.As he entered the court he greeted his co-defendants with the defiant phrase: ‘‘Good morning to all those who respect the law.’’ He has said the trial is a ‘‘Made in America’’ sham and has repeatedly questioned the court’s authority.The trial has rekindled painful memories for many Iraqis just a week before they vote for their first full-term parliament since Saddam’s downfall. For many in the Shi’ite majority and among ethnic Kurds, oppressed by Saddam’s Sunni Arab-dominated regime, the widely televised trial addresses a longing for vengeance not entirely satisfied by the power US-backed democracy has brought them. Tuesday’s hearing, like the previous sessions, was dogged by procedural and technical problems.Witness A began by speaking through a computerised voice modifier to protect her identity, but Saddam’s Defence team complained they could not hear the evidence and the trial judge was forced to order a recess which lasted 40 minutes.It was unclear from the woman’s testimony when or where all the alleged incidents took place. The trial is centred on the killings of 148 men from the Shi’ite village of Dujail after an assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982. —Reuters 27 police officers killed by female bombersBAGHDAD: Two female suicide bombers killed at least 27 police officers and students at the Baghdad Police Academy and wounded another 32 on Tuesday in the worst bombing attack for a month, said the US Military.A US military statement said, “Two females, each wearing a suicide vest, walked into a classroom at the academy and detonated in the midst of students”. There were no US forces at the academy duriung the attack.It was the worst attack since two suicide bombers strapped with explosives killed at least 74 people and reduced two crowded Shi’ite mosques to rubble during Friday prayers in Khanaqin on November 18. —Reuters
