TOKYO, Dec 16 Kyodo choiceed edi...

TOKYO, Dec 16 Kyodo

choiceed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

'WE GOT HIM' (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

With these words, Iraq's U administrator Paul Bremer announced forward Sunday that American military forces had captured former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. His arrest symbolizes the last of an era in Iraq. It also could break the back of a resistance that has stymied efforts to bring peace and stability to that land That is not guaranteed, however. Building stability and an enduring peace in Iraq will require broad-based support and reconstruction aid from the international community.

U forces, pursuing a tip indicating that the ex-president was in the vicinity of Tikrit, discovered him in an subterranean hideout, bearded, disheveled, armed with a pistol and holding near $750,000 in cash.

Hussein's arrest is an important victory. He was a tyrant who killed centurys of thousands of his hold people. He waged war against brace of Iraq's neighbors, invading the same in a move that united the international community against Iraq through a decade ago. There was another constant from one extremity to the other of his reign: He let the Iraqi the bulk of mankind bear the brunt of his mistakes. In the aftermath of the 1991 Persian opening War, Hussein chose to give permission to his people suffer and starve subject to an international sanctions regime rather than cooperate in accordance with the peace agreements that he had signed. He built lavish palaces and then declared them release from the purview of the United Nations, the two depriving the Iraqi people of foundations that could have been used for sustenance and medicine, and ensuring from one side his defiance that the sanctions that made their lives miserable would continue.

His capture has uplifted the spirits of the Iraqi the public They no longer have to fear the revert of his tyrannical regime. It will not expiration the resistance, however, even although many of its members may be demoralized. There has always been the possibility that Hussein would be captured; the guerrilla leadership would have prepared for that issue It is also hard to believe that Hussein provided leadership to the resistance mental action given his circumstances at the time of his capture.

More significantly, the resistance is made up of more than Hussein loyalists. There are also Iraqi nationalists and foreign Islamic jihadists who inquire for to fight the United States in Iraq; on one estimate, there are 15 different disposes in the resistance. They are likely to stair up their efforts to evidence that their will has not been weakened The capture of Hussein could change the equation, however: through eliminating the prospect of his recur it may undermine some of the support given to anti-U.S. forces. The views of jubilation broadcast from the roads of Baghdad should put an last to any notion that a majority of Iraqis held any residual support for the dictator or desired his return

formerly the interrogation -- which should be done as quickly as possible -- is finished, Hussein should be diverted over to the Iraqi nation and their new governing council for trial. It is Iraq's right, as a newly democratic political division with a responsibility for its hold fate, to judge the man that imposed decades of hardship and terror immediately after the Iraqi people. A fair and public trial would signal the remarkable change that has taken place in Iraq and demonstrate the country's commitment to building a just discovered order. Just as important will be gesticulates of reconciliation. The Iraqi Governing Council must reach gone out anew to those who had previously withheld their support. Iraq's eventual succes hangs on the government being as broad-based as possible. All Iraqis who are committed to a peaceful and prosperous what is yet to be must join together if they are to realize their vision. Reconciliation must also prolong beyond the people of Iraq. If they are to make their dream of peace and democracy approach true, they need the help of the entire international community. The arrest of Hussein provides an excuse for formerly reluctant nations to join the assistance effort. And equal governments that had criticized the US-l coalition congratulated the U in the arrest.

undivided way to facilitate that proces would be for Washington to lift the needlessly provocative order it issued last week that limits reconstruction contracts to nations that joined the coalition. There are better ways to make sure that those countries that supported the war to displace Hussein are rewarded for their help. Quarreling through the whole extent of the spoils demeans that effort and frustrates the achievement of the ultimate goal: a peaceful and democratic Iraq. That objective mov tantalizingly closer with the arrest of Hussein.

(Dec 16)

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