
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991                   TAG: 9104170184
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

BUSH MIGHT LET SADDAM GO

President Bush, asserting anew that Saddam Hussein should be ousted, said Tuesday that he may be willing to grant the Iraqi leader safe passage to a third country and immunity from war-crimes prosecution if Saddam would leave power.

Bush, asked at a news conference about his wife's suggestion that Saddam be tried, said there are "plenty of grounds" for war-crimes prosecution.

But he stressed the overriding importance to Iraq of removing Saddam.

"If you came to me as a broker, and you said, `I can get him out of there, but he'd have to be able to live a happy life forevermore in some third country, with all kinds of conditions never to go back and brutalize his people again' - I'd have to think about it, but I might be willing to say, so far as our pressing charges, we'd be willing to get him out."

At the same time, Bush rejected a suggestion attributed to former President Nixon that a "contract" be arranged for Saddam's death.

The European Community foreign ministers Monday agreed the Iraqi president should be held personally responsible for deaths of Kurds and atrocities during Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait.

Before the European Community acted, the United States had been noncommittal on the issue of bringing Saddam and top Iraqi officials to trial, although Department of Defense lawyers have been gathering evidence.

During the Persian Gulf War, the administration leaned toward allowing allies, particularly the Kuwaitis and Saudis, to take the lead.

Earlier Tuesday, Secretary of State James Baker did not dismiss the idea of war-crimes trials.

by CNB