U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE HOLY SEE JIM NICHOLSON
SEES ARREST OF SADDAM HUSSEIN
A CHANCE FOR RECONCILIATION AND RECONSTRUCTION

 

ROME, ITALY, December 16, 2003-- Today the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Jim Nicholson said the weekend arrest of Saddam Hussein “offered Iraq the first opportunity for true reconciliation and reconstruction.”

“A dictator, who has killed or ordered to be killed millions of people, now is no longer free to do so. As the Chaldean Catholic bishops of Iraq have said, ‘fear has ended.’ I stand with them in proclaiming that ‘this is good news for the Iraqi people.’

“Hussein will now be prosecuted with dignity and justice-two basic human rights he never afforded to anyone else. A new page in Iraq’s history can now truly begin,” said Ambassador Nicholson.

Additionally, Ambassador Nicholson welcomed the Pope’s World Day of Peace message issued today. Within it the Pope said that peace cannot be built without order and that law must also respond to ‘government leaders who violate with impunity human dignity and human rights while hiding behind the unacceptable pretext that it is a matter of questions internal to their state.’

“I believe President George Bush said it best yesterday when he observed that the capture of Saddam Hussein was a triumph for the Iraqi people, who are rid of a source of their fears and can now focus with confidence on creating a hopeful and self-governing nation,” said Ambassador Nicholson.