July 16, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424

BAGHDAD, July 15: Iraq’s transitory Governing Council decided at a meeting Tuesday to set up a war crimes tribunal to try members of the ousted Saddam Hussein regime, sources close to the meeting’s chairman said.

Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloom, son of the Shia acting chairman, Mohammed, told AFP the council had taken “two important decisions: the creation of a war crimes tribunal and the restoration of the rights of Iraqis, victims of oppression under the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.”

These victims, he said, included the families of those killed under the regime and others who were displaced.

Some non-governmental organisations have estimated that up to 300,000 people went missing under Saddam’s regime, with the Shia majority and Kurdish population in the north particularly persecuted during his nearly 24-year rule.

Kurds were forced out of their homes, while thousands of Shias living in Iraq’s southern marshlands, which were drained under the regime, fled north.

The US-led coalition has said it wants to try top members of the former regime on war crimes charges.—AFP