Hussein to Iraqis: Forgive each other, reconcile

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, speaking in court two days after being sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, has called on Iraqis to forgive each other.

"I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands," Hussein said Tuesday at his second trial, where he and six other defendants face charges related to the military Operation Anfal in the country's Kurdish region in 1988.

Hussein and Ali Hassan al-Majid, or Chemical Ali, have been charged with genocide.

The former leader was convicted on Sunday in the deaths of almost 150 Shiite Muslims, which followed an assassination attempt on him in the town of Dujail in 1982. (Watch how Saddam Hussein's tone has changed since his conviction -- 2:00)

On Tuesday, the court heard from three Kurdish villagers who were survivors of a 1988 execution squad and the fourth who fled a chemical attack in the same year.

Hussein listened quietly as the first witness testified Tuesday for about 90 minutes, at one time taking off his shirt to show his back scarred by bullet wounds.

After his testimony, Hussein said Muhammad failed to connect him to his shooting.

"Witnesses come here and take us on a trip and have nothing to back up what they're saying," Hussein said. "Who backs up their words? No Arabs, no Kurds, no one. Is this the way to reach the truth?"

The witness said he and other villagers surrendered following an uprising in the Kurdish village after they were promised a pardon by Hussein and his Baath party. Instead, the witness said, they were rounded up along with all the other men and shot.

The second witness, who gave a similar account of the execution and showed his gunshot scars, presented a video of bodies being excavated at a mass grave in his village of Kareem.

The witness said the mass grave was located at the site of the execution, and excavated in 1991.

The third witness quoted Hussein as saying, "'Kurds are saboteurs and have to be destroyed.'"

When Hussein asked him during cross examination to specify when he had said that, the man gulped in fear before he tried to answer in a shaky voice. The judge asked the witness to answer the question and he replied, "People used to say that, I did not hear that."

Five witnesses are expected to testify when the trial resumes Wednesday.

The Anfal trial will continue while an appeal is under way in the Dujail case.

On Monday, the chief prosecutor said the nine-judge appeals panel was expected to rule on Hussein's guilty verdict and death sentence in the Dujail case by the middle of January. That could set in motion a possible execution by mid-February. (Full story)

Hussein and two co-defendants were sentenced Sunday to be hanged, while four other defendants were sentenced to prison terms ranging up to life. One defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence. (Full story)

Defense lawyers called the sentences politically motivated -- timed, they said, to "consolidate the electoral campaign of George W. Bush." (Watch whether the verdict will impact U.S. elections -- 2:15 )

The lawyers also questioned the impartiality of the judges of the Iraqi High Criminal Court.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said his country opposed the death penalty "whether it's Saddam or anyone else." (Full story)

Blair added, however, that the trial "gives us a chance to see again what the past in Iraq was, the brutality, the tyranny, the hundreds of thousands of people he killed, the wars," The Associated Press reported.

On Tuesday, Iran called for the death sentence to be carried out, saying the former Iraqi dictator was a criminal who deserved to die.

"We hope the fair, correct and legal verdict against this criminal ... is enforced," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told a news conference, AP reported.

Hussein waged a war against Iran in 1980-88. More than a million Iranians and Iraqis died in the conflict.