英国首相布莱尔终于打破沉默，于1月9日表示：处死伊拉克前总统萨达姆·侯赛因的方式是“完全错误的”。布莱尔是当天在会见到访的日本首相安倍晋三后的记者招待会上作上述表示的。布莱尔说：“处死萨达姆的方式是完全错误的，但这不应使我们漠视萨达姆对伊拉克人民所犯下的罪行。” 据悉，自萨达姆去年12月30日被处死以来，布莱尔一直未公开发表评论，从而招致英国各界和一些政府高官的批评。

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：绞架

（英语点津陈蓓编辑）