Tariq Aziz, Iraqi foreign minister under Saddam, dies

[Hindustani78]

Updated: June 5, 2015 22:07 IST
Tariq Aziz, Iraqi foreign minister under Saddam, dies - The Hindu

A fluent English speaker, Aziz played a prominent diplomatic role in the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War.
Tariq Aziz, who was foreign minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, has died in prison, Iraqi officials said on Friday. He was 79.


Aziz surrendered in April 2003 to a U.S. invasion force which overthrew Saddam. He was sentenced to death seven years later over the persecution of Islamic parties under the former Iraqi leader. He had long complained of ill-health during his detention.



Dr. Saadi al-Majid, head of the health department of Dhi Qar governorate where Aziz was being held, confirmed Aziz's death to Reuters:

"Tariq Aziz arrived at al-Nasiriya Educational hospital suffering from a severe heart attack. He had heart complications that led to his death at 3 p.m. (1200 GMT)."

Another Iraqi source also confirmed he had died at the hospital.

A fluent English speaker, Aziz played a prominent diplomatic role in the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, as well as in the long-running disputes over United Nations weapons inspections in subsequent years.

A Chaldean Christian, he was born in the village of Tal Keif, near Mosul in northern Iraq. His association with Saddam dated back to the 1950s, when the two men were involved in the then-outlawed Baath party, which sought to oust the British-backed monarchy.

Aziz was number 43 on the U.S. most-wanted list of Iraqi officials when he gave himself up just two weeks after Saddam was toppled.

 

[Hindustani78]

By AP | 12 Jun, 2015, 01.48AM IST
Tariq Aziz family says his body has gone missing in Iraq - The Economic Times

AMMAN: The body of Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's former top aide who died last week in prison in Iraq, went missing on Thursday after it was snatched in Baghdad while en route to Jordan for burial, Aziz's daughter said.

Aziz's daughter Zeinab said she was told by her mother, who was in Iraq and waited to accompany the casket to Jordan, that his body went missing at the Baghdad International Airport. No further details were immediately known.

A Royal Jordanian official confirmed that the last flight left Baghdad on Thursday without Aziz's casket. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Calls to the Iraqi government for comment or information were not immediately returned.

Aziz died last Friday in the city of Nasiriyah, where he was imprisoned awaiting execution. Iraqi forensics chief Zaid Ali Abbas says autopsy results Thursday confirmed that he died of a heart attack.

He was the highest-ranking Christian in Saddam's regime and was the international face of the Baath Party in Iraq. He was sentenced in October 2010 to hang for persecuting members of the Shiite Muslim religious parties that now dominate Iraq.

In recent months, a number of other former Saddam loyalists have been suspected of working with the Islamic State militants in what is viewed as a Sunni alliance of convenience against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.


Another senior Saddam aide, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, is suspected of working directly with the Sunni militant group. In April, a number of Iraqi government officials and members of the country's Iran-backed Shiite militias announced that al-Douri was killed in fighting near Tikrit. But DNA results were never released to confirm the death as promised.

Aziz's daughter, obviously distraught, would not speculate or who may have snatched the body and for what purpose. In Baghdad, Aziz's wife Violet and airport officials could also not be reached for comment.

 

[الأعرابي]

At least this guy wasn't traitor, he didn't sell his country to the Farsis

 

[Hindustani78]

Updated: June 13, 2015 15:52 IST
Body of Tariq Aziz in Jordan ahead of burial - The Hindu

The body of Tariq Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam Hussein’s inner circle, is in Jordan ahead of being buried.

The body arrived in Jordan’s capital, Amman, early Saturday. Authorities took it to a local morgue, where Aziz’s son, Ziad, and others met it. Some Baath Party supporters chanted outside.

Aziz died June 5 at age 79. He had been in prison since the U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and suffered a series of strokes. He faced execution for his role in a government that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Jordan’s government agreed to a request by Aziz’s family to bury him in Jordan. After an autopsy, Aziz’s daughter, Zeinab, said her father’s body went missing at Baghdad International Airport. Authorities said a delay occurred over missing documents.

• Tariq Aziz: Iraq's former Deputy Premier, for many years the public face of Saddam Hussein's regime, died in an Iraqi prison
• 1936: Born into Christian family in village near Mosul. Studies English literature before career in journalism. Edits main Baath Party newspaper.
• 1970s: Named information minister.
• 1977: Joins revolutionary Command Council- senior Baath committee ruling Iraq- becoming deputy prime minister in 1979.
• 1980-88: Helps win U.S. support for Iraq in its war with Iran.
• 1990: Recognisable figure in world media following invasion of Kuwait.
• 1991: Famously refuses to accept letter from then U.S. President George Bush to Saddam, signalling in evitability of first Gulf War.
• 2003: Gives himself up to U.S. forces two weeks after fall of Saddam.
• October 2010: Sentenced to death by Iraq's Supreme Court for persecution of religious parties under Saddam's rule.
• June 5, 2015: Dies at the age of 79.