Sunday December 19, 2004

Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

The trial process started in Iraq yesterday of “Chemical Ali”. He’s the cousin of Saddam Hussein and the architect behind the gassing and genocide of 100,000 Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s. Ali Hassan al-Majid (his real name) is the first of eleven members of Saddam’s regime to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yesterday’s hearing was a preliminary investigation session and took place in front of Iraqi judges. The real trial will start after this initial questioning. Saddam and his cronies will be tried by Iraqi and not American lawyers. Saddam will not appear in any court until after January’s Iraqi elections. Ali arrived at the court in handcuffs and surrounded by policemen.

Ali was Saddam Hussein's ‘hatchet’ man and was involved in some of the worst crimes of the Iraqi government, including genocide and crimes against humanity." He was also in charge of Iraq's brutal military occupation of Kuwait, and the later killing and torture of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s in southern Iraq, who rose up against Saddam Hussein. He is seen talking about Kurds on a Human Rights Watch video, saying “I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to say anything? The international community? Fuck them! … I will not attack [the Kurds] with chemicals just one day, but I will continue to attack them with chemicals for fifteen days.” Ali may not get a taste of his own medicine, but he probably won’t see the light of day again.

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about ‘Chemical Ali’ / Saddam Hussein / crimes against humanity / The Gulf Wars / the Kurdish people / international justice …
To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. NICKNAMES: Students write down the nicknames they have had in their lives and talk about them. If the class know each other well, they could have fun by choosing new nicknames for each other and the teacher.

3. JUDGE AND JURY: Write the following ‘crimes’ of Chemical Ali on the board. Students ask each other what his penalty should be:
- being a cousin of Saddam Hussein
- being the architect of genocide, gassing 100,000 Kurds in between 1987 and 1991
- being in charge of Iraq's brutal military occupation of Kuwait
- leading the suppression of the Iraqi Shia rebellion against Saddam Hussein, in which more than 100,000 Shia were tortured and killed
- being in charge of the ‘disappearance’ of 210,000 ‘Marshland Arabs’ in the south of Iraq after the Gulf War
- arranging the death of his brother and two nephews for living in Kuwait
- recommending the use of chemical weapons and genocide
- heading Saddam’s chemical weapons programme
You may also want to put some example court sentences board: life imprisonment / 25 years in jail / capital punishment / a taste of his own medicine / let the Iraqi people decide / death by hanging, firing squad, electrocution, gassing).

4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept:
Chemical Ali should be tried by Iraqi judges. vs. Chemical Ali should be tried by international (American?) judges.
The Iraqi people should decide his punishment. vs The Iraqi courts should decide his punishment.
He should receive the death penalty. vs He should get a taste of his own medicine.
He shouldn’t be tried for chemical weapons – there aren’t any. vs. Yes he should, and yes there are.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘trial’, and ‘initial’.

2. HEADLINE: Put the article headline on the board for students to talk about / predict / speculate. Pairs / groups formulate and present their own guesses as to the contents of the report.

3. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:

(a)  The actual trial of “Chemical Ali” started yesterday.  T / F
(b)  Chemical Al” is the cousin of Saddam Hussein.  T / F
(c)  Ali is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  T / F
(d)  Saddam will go on trial next week.  T / F
(e)  Ali was Saddam Hussein's ‘hatchet’ man.  T / F
(f)  Ali was involved in some of the worst crimes of the Iraqi government, including genocide and crimes against humanity.  T / F
(g)  Ali was in charge of Iraq's brutal military occupation of Kuwait.  T / F
(h)  Ali was responsible for killing and torturing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s in southern Iraq, who rebelled against Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War.  T / F

4. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	actual	first
(b)	architect	avengement
(c)	genocide	violation
(d)	regime	mass murder
(e)	initial	real
(f)	crime	life imprisonment
(g)	hatchet man	mastermind / planner
(h)	rise up	dictatorship
(i)	a taste of one’s own medicine	executioner
(j)	won’t see the light of day again	rebel

5. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	the actual trial started	humanity
(b)	the cousin of	of day
(c)	the architect	cronies
(d)	crimes against	Saddam
(e)	initial	yesterday
(f)	Saddam and his	charge of
(g)	in	behind the gassing and genocide
(h)	hundreds of	own medicine
(i)	a taste of his	thousands
(j)	see the light	questioning

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

“Chemical Ali” trial starts

The actual __________ of “Chemical Ali” started yesterday. He’s the cousin of Saddam Hussein and the architect behind the gassing and __________ of 100,000 Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s. Ali Hassan al-Majid (his real name) is the first of eleven members of Saddam’s regime to stand trial for war __________ and crimes against humanity. Yesterday’s hearing was a preliminary investigation session and took place in front of Iraqi __________. The real trial will start after this initial questioning. Saddam and his __________ will be tried by Iraqi and not American lawyers. Saddam will not appear in any court until after January’s Iraqi elections. Ali arrived at the court in __________ and surrounded by policemen.		cronies handcuffs trial judges genocide crimes
Ali was Saddam Hussein's ‘hatchet’ man and was __________ in some of the worst crimes of the Iraqi government, including genocide and crimes against humanity." He was also __________ of Iraq's brutal military occupation of Kuwait, and the later killing and torture of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s in southern Iraq, who __________ against Saddam Hussein. He is seen talking about Kurds on a Human Rights Watch video, saying “I will kill them all with chemical weapons! Who is going to __________ anything? The international community? Fuck them! … I will not attack [the Kurds] with chemicals just one day, but I will continue to attack them with chemicals for fifteen days.” Ali may not get __________ of his own medicine, but he probably won’t see the __________ of day again.		in charge involved light rose up taste say

 

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

4. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

5. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. CHEMICAL ALI DISCUSSION: Students ask each other the following questions:

(a)  What should happen to ‘Chemical’ Ali?
(b)  What should happen to his cousin Saddam Hussein?
(c)  Do you think ‘Chemical’ Ali should get a taste of his own medicine?
(d)  Do you think ‘Chemical’ Ali should see the light of day again?
(e)  What do you know about the Kurds or the Marsh Arabs in the South of Iraq?
(f)  Do you think the Americans, or international judges, should be in charge of the trials?
(g)  In Islamic Sharia Law ‘Chemical’ Ali would probably be punished with death. Would you agree with this punishment?
(h)  Why do you think ‘Chemical’ Ali killed around half a million people?
(i)  Should the international community make other brutal leaders stand trial (Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Kim Jong Il of North Korea, Soe Win of Myanmar, Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir of Sudan …)?
(j)  Will the future see fewer or more dictators?

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Chemical Ali. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: Create an information poster detailing the types of punishment people should receive for crimes against humanity.

4. LETTER TO ‘CHEMICAL’ ALI: Write a letter to ‘Chemical’ Ali telling him what you think of him, and ask him some questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

(a)  The actual trial of “Chemical Ali” started yesterday.  F (the trial process began)
(b)  Chemical Al” is the cousin of Saddam Hussein.  T
(c)  Ali is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  T
(d)  Saddam will go on trial next week.  F
(e)  Ali was Saddam Hussein's ‘hatchet’ man.  T
(f)  Ali was involved in some of the worst crimes of the Iraqi government, including genocide and crimes against humanity.  T
(g)  Ali was in charge of Iraq's brutal military occupation of Kuwait.  T
(h)  Ali was responsible for killing and torturing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s in southern Iraq, who rebelled against Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	actual	real
(b)	architect	mastermind / planner
(c)	genocide	mass murder
(d)	regime	dictatorship
(e)	initial	first
(f)	crime	violation
(g)	hatchet man	executioner
(h)	rise up	rebel
(i)	a taste of one’s own medicine	avengement
(j)	won’t see the light of day again	life imprisonment

PHRASE MATCH

(a)	the actual trial started	yesterday
(b)	the cousin of	Saddam
(c)	the architect	behind the gassing and genocide
(d)	crimes against	humanity
(e)	initial	questioning
(f)	Saddam and his	cronies
(g)	in	charge of
(h)	hundreds of	thousands
(i)	a taste of his	own medicine
(j)	see the light	of da y