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WORLD NEWSSaturday 6 June 2015
Tariq Aziz, top aide to Saddam Hussein, dies in hospital
Q. ZAHRA al-Nassiri. In this September, 1990 photo, Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz slams a book of United Nations
N. YACOUB Aziz, the highest-ranking resolutions at a news conference in Moscow, Russia. Tariq Aziz, the debonair Iraqi diplomat who
Associated Press Christian in Saddam’s re- made his name by staunchly defending Saddam Hussein to the world during three wars and was
BAGHDAD (AP) — Tariq gime, was its international later sentenced to death as part of the regime that killed hundreds of thousands of its own people,
Aziz, the debonair Iraqi dip- face for years. He was sen- has died in a hospital in southern Iraq. He was 79.
lomat who made his name tenced in 2010 to hang for
by staunchly defending persecuting members of (AP Photo/Liu Heung Shing)
Saddam Hussein to the the Shiite Muslim religious
world during three wars parties that now dominate
and was later sentenced Iraq.
to death as part of the re- His wife, Violet, had visited
gime that killed hundreds him in prison Thursday, their
of thousands of its own daughter Zeinab told The
people, has died in a hos- Associated Press in the Jor-
pital in southern Iraq, offi- danian capital, Amman,
cials said. He was 79. where most of the family
Aziz, who had been in cus- lives.
tody in a prison in the south Her father had suffered
awaiting execution, died several strokes that left
Friday afternoon after he him confined to a wheel-
was taken to the al-Hussein chair and unable to speak
hospital in the city of Na- during their parents’ final
siriyah following a heart meeting, she said.
attack, according to the “He didn’t move. He
provincial governor, Yahya couldn’t talk. He didn’t
say a word to her. He just it can take Aziz’s body from prison.
looked at her,” said Zeinab, the hospital morgue. “I’m sick and tired but I
46, fighting back tears. The only Christian among wish Iraq and Iraqis well,”
“It is so sad that he had Saddam’s inner circle, he said.
to go this way,” she said, Aziz’s religion rescued him Elegant and eloquent,
speaking outside the fam- from the hangman’s noose Aziz spoke fluent English,
ily’s Amman home, where that was the fate of other smoked Cuban cigars and
friends and relatives gath- members of the top regime was loyal to Saddam to the
ered. “So sad that he didn’t leadership. last, even naming one of
see his grandchildren, so After he was sentenced to his sons after the dictator.
sad that he had to spend death, the Vatican asked His posts included that of
his last years alone, sick for mercy for him as a Chris- foreign minister and deputy
and alone, and in this very tian. Iraq’s president at the prime minister, and he sat
humiliating circumstance.” time, Jalal Talabani, then on the Revolutionary Com-
“But I want people to re- refused to give the death mand Council, the highest
member what he did,” she sentence his required sig- body in Saddam’s regime.
added. “He really fought nature, citing Aziz’s age His main role was as the re-
for his country, in his own and religion. gime’s go-to man to com-
way.” Even before he was sen- municate with the West. To
Al-Nassiri, the governor of tenced, the ailing Aziz ap- the world, he was one of the
Dhi Qar province, said doc- peared to know that he most recognizable faces
tors could not save Aziz at would die in custody. He from Iraq during Saddam’s
the hospital in Nasiriyah, had had several strokes rule: silver haired, with a
about 320 kilometers (200 while in custody undergo- mustache and trademark
miles) southeast of Bagh- ing trial multiple times for dark-rimmed glasses. A
dad. various regime crimes. skilled operator in the halls
“The medical staff did their “I have no future. I have of the United Nations, he
best to rescue him, but no future,” Aziz told The AP, was the regime’s front-man
they failed. It is God’s will,” looking frail and speaking in dealing with U.N. inspec-
he said, adding that Aziz with difficulty because of tors trying to track and as-
had been a chain smoker a recent stroke, in a jail- sure the dismantling of Sad-
and suffered from diabetes house interview in Septem- dam’s weapons of mass
and high blood pressure for ber 2010. At that stage, he destruction.
a long time. Local Iraqi au- had been sentenced to
thorities later told the family more than two decades in Continued on Page 27
