英國首相布萊爾終于打破沉默，于1月9日表示：處死伊拉克前總統薩達姆·侯賽因的方式是“完全錯誤的”。布萊爾是當天在會見到訪的日本首相安倍晉三后的記者招待會上作上述表示的。布萊爾說：“處死薩達姆的方式是完全錯誤的，但這不應使我們漠視薩達姆對伊拉克人民所犯下的罪行?！?據悉，自薩達姆去年12月30日被處死以來，布萊爾一直未公開發表評論，從而招致英國各界和一些政府高官的批評。

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that the manner of Saddam Hussein's execution was completely wrong and unacceptable - his first public comments about the Dec. 30 hanging.

However, Blair told a London news conference he hoped disputes over thetauntingof the former Iraqi dictator and the release of illicit video footage of the execution would not lead people to forget the gravity of Saddam's crimes.

"The crimes that Saddam committed does not excuse the manner of his execution, but the manner of his execution does not excuse the crimes," Blair said, during a joint news conference with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Saddam was executed for crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail after an assassination attempt against him there in 1982.

A cellphone video of the execution leaked out shortly after the former ruler was hanged. It showed some of those present in the execution chamber taunting Saddam in the final moments of his life as he stood on thegallowswith a noose around his neck. It also showed the moment of his death - a scene that was left out of the official version of the execution broadcast on Iraqi television.

Blair, President Bush's chief ally in the war in Iraq, said he hoped the issues surrounding Saddam's execution would not "blind us to the crimes he committed against his own people." Saddam was responsible for the "death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, 1 million causalities in the Iran-Iraq war and the use of chemical weapons against his own people, wiping out entire villages," he said.

The British premier had faced public criticism after choosing not to immediately comment on the execution.

Both Blair's deputy John Prescott and expected successor Treasury chief Gordon Brown had publicly criticized the hanging, but Blair declined to answer questions on the matter after returning from a holiday in Florida last week.

（Agencies）

Vocabulary:

gallows：絞架

（英語點津陳蓓編輯）