Saddam Hussein accused witnesses at his genocide trial on Tuesday of undermining the unity of Iraq, as more Kurds gave accounts of how scores of detained civilians died in his brutal prisons.
Mutalib Mohammed Salman, a 78-year-old man in traditional Kurdish headdress, testified that he and fellow villagers were rounded up during the 1988 "Anfal" campaign and shipped off to a desert prison in southern Iraq.
"One day I counted 20 dead bodies as I went over to see two of my relatives in the prison after I heard that they were sick," he told the court in Kurdish. "When I reached them, I found them dead."
The next witness, an even older Kurdish farmer, related how at least 700 of the 7,000 prisoners in the grim jail died while he was there.
"They were given each one loaf and a half of bread and they were bringing the water from the marshlands," said 81-year-old Omar Hassan Omar.
Baba Abdullah Rassol, another elderly Kurd, told of how after his village was burned Iraqi soldiers were led to his terrified family's hiding place in the mountains by the cries of his 25-day-old baby.
The family were taken to the camp, where they were beaten and the baby died of hunger, one of perhaps 300 people thought to have died and been buried in shallow graves just outside the perimeter wire.
On Tuesday, however, Saddam accused the witnesses of giving evidence that will fuel the hatred in present-day Iraq, where hundreds are dying in sectarian and ethnic violence.
"When the witnesses say ... we were attacked like this because we are Kurds ... all this will create sedition among a unified people," Saddam complained, adding that only the "Zionists" would benefit from the division of Iraq.
The ousted strongman took umbrage when the chief prosecutor, Munqith al-Faroon, branded Saddam-era Iraq as a "police and intelligence state" which murdered its own citizens.
"Our state and regime was a real one!" retorted Saddam from the dock. "What is not a real state is one in which people's heads are being chopped off and dumped in the streets every day."
Iraqi and UN officials estimate that around 100 Iraqis are killed every day, in a wave of sectarian violence. On Monday, prosecutor Faroon's brother joined this grim toll when he was gunned down while fleeing his Baghdad home.
One of the biggest points of contention between the defendants and the court may finally have been resolved, however, when the judge began the trial by agreeing to allow the return of their legal team.
For the past month, the defence team has boycotted the trial in protest at alleged interference by the Iraqi government, and Judge Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah has assigned seven court-appointed lawyers to conduct the defence.
"Your honour we talked to our lawyers and they want to attend," said former defence minister Sultan Hashim al-Tai, who sits next to Saddam in the dock. "It is in our benefit for them to attend."
After the judge agreed to the request, likely to take effect later in the week, evidence continued on atrocities committed during the Anfal, in which prosecutors say Kurds were killed in death camps, bombings and gas attacks.
Salman ended his testimony with a plaintive call familiar to the ears of court observers. "I demand Saddam tell me about the fate of my relatives, the 33 of my relatives who were 'Anfalized'," he said.
The former Iraqi president and his co-defendants insist the operation was a legitimate military campaign against separatist guerrillas and fighters who sided with Iran, with which Iraq was at war during the 1980s.
Saddam and his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former military commander who became notorious for anti-Kurd gas attacks as "Chemical Ali," are accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The five others are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, and all seven accused face the death penalty if convicted.
The Iraqi High Tribunal has also set a date of November 5 for the verdict in Saddam's earlier trial for crimes against humanity in the devastation of the Shia village of Dujail and the killing of 148 villagers in the 1980s.