Saddam 'dying every day' in custody

Mariam (C), a seven-year-old Iraqi orphan waits to get her gift during a celebration organised by the Iraqi LIFE Non-Governmental Organisation yesterday in Baghdad. Dr Baghira al-Jumaili one of the officials of LIFE said the organisation is celebrating the new school year with orphans, helping to bring joy and happiness into the heart of the less fortunate. PHOTO: AFP

Their sometimes contrasting portraits included at least three descriptions of Saddam.

The New York Times quoted Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, as saying that Saddam was "dying every day" since he was toppled by invading US and British armies last year.

"He is in prison, he is alone, he has lost everything, he has no power, nothing," Allawi said.

"And to him that is worse than death."

The same paper quoted Iraqi and US officials as saying that Saddam insists that he is still head of state and that "he has refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, or to show remorse for the hundreds of thousands of people killed during his 24-year dictatorship."

In his 3.5-by-3.9 meter (10-by-13 foot) cell -- furnished with a fold-up bed, a small desk and a plastic chair, and a prayer mat -- Saddam reads poetry and "tales from 1,000 years ago when Baghdad was a centre of learning and the capital of the Islamic world," the officials said.

Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin, for his part, compared the spartan simplicity of Saddam's life in custody with the enormity of the crimes he is alleged to have committed.

Amin told the New York Times it was bizarre that Saddam placed white-painted stones around the plants he tends in the courtyard where he is allowed to exercise for three hours a day.