Answer ‘Chemical Ali´ with a tribunal

The capture in Iraq on Thursday of Ali Hassan al-Majid offers an extraordinary opportunity for Iraqis to bring some measure of justice to tens of thousands of victims of Baath Party rule. But this can only happen if he is put on trial before a tribunal that is fair, impartial and independent. And for that to happen, the United States will have to reconsider its perverse aversion to an accountability process that involves the international community. Aside from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, no former official embodied the criminal rapacity of the Baath government more starkly than Ali Hassan al-Majid, an army general and Saddam´s cousin.