Saddam must get fair trial

World leaders should push for a special process that would include both Iraqi and international judges and jurists -- modelled on the internationally sanctioned tribunals to try crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone and Cambodia. That would give an international component to the prosecution and the international community should sanction the process for bringing Saddam to justice.

The case against Saddam includes war crimes, massive genocide and other crimes against humanity, such as using poison gas on cities in his campaign against the Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s, the mass expulsion of Marsh Arabs and Shiite Muslims in the south, and the murder of political opponents throughout the country. But the magnitude of the allegations does not mean Saddam deserves a kangaroo court and quick conviction.