Saddam admission delights, surprises Iraqis

BAGHDAD, March 2 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein's admission that he gave the orders that led to the execution of Shi'ite Muslims in the 1980s has both shocked and delighted many ordinary Iraqis.

Saddam made the frank admission, along with another that he ordered farmland to be destroyed, during a court appearance on Wednesday in his trial for crimes against humanity.

"I was delighted to see Saddam admitting his guilt," said Ahmed Khalil, a Baghdad money changer in his 20s.

"For a while I began to think the court had no solid evidence against him but I am glad they had the document he signed," he said on Thursday.

Since the trial began last October, more than a dozen witnesses have given graphic evidence against Saddam's regime, but there have been doubts over whether the evidence was strong enough to implicate Saddam personally.

On Wednesday, however, prosecutors read out documents, showed satellite images and played audio tapes in an attempt to link Saddam directly to the execution of 148 Shi'ites from Dujail after an assassination attempt there in July 1982.

"I referred them to the Revolutionary Court according to the law. Awad was implementing the law, he had a right to convict and acquit," Saddam said, referring to his co-accused Awad al-Bandar, the former chief of the Revolutionary Court.

"I razed them ... we specified the farmland of those who were convicted and I signed," said Saddam, who faces hanging if convicted.

"It's the right of the state to confiscate or to compensate. So where is the crime?" he said, essentially arguing that he had the right to do what he did as president at the time.

The confession buoyed Iraqis who have grown frustrated at the drawn out legal process and want the trial to end quickly.

"This confession will shut up his sympathizers who say he is innocent," said a 29-year old Sunni man who would only give his name as Sabah, who was shopping for clothes in the upscale Baghdad district of Mansur.

"The court is a farce," Sabah said. "I hope he gets sentenced to death."

Following a week of sectarian violence that has killed hundreds and pitched Iraq toward civil war, Saddam also tried to use Wednesday's court to recall the unity of Iraqis in the war he waged against Iran in the 1980s.

But that message failed to move Baghdad residents.

"I was shocked when I saw him confess," said one Iraqi in his late 30s outside a video shop in downtown Baghdad. He declined to give his name.

"He tried to make himself a hero but I think he changed his attitude after he saw the documents signed by him."