IT is a joyful day for people such as Thamir Yasen, who have watched their home country of Iraq under the oppression of Saddam Hussein: "My country is born again," he said after hearing of the tyrant's capture.

Dr Yasen, who lives in Swindon, had three nephews tortured and murdered by Saddam's henchmen and witnessed other brutal crimes.

Now the people of Iraq need no longer fear that Saddam will come back to terrorise them.

At one time image was all to this dictator with his dyed black hair and moustache now the image of him looking dirty and bedraggled after being found cowering in a hole in the ground has been beamed around the world so all could see his humiliation.

But he must be tried as a war criminal. It is up to the Iraqi people to try him Saddam was responsible for the deaths of millions of his countrymen and those who fought in the Gulf war.

Saddam's trial will help Iraqis like Dr Yasen by showing justice can be done in the fledging state as it is being rebuilt. Perhaps it will help them lay the ghosts of their loved ones that were so brutally dispatched by one of the world's most infamous dictators.

It is not often that megalomaniacs are brought to justice on the world stage Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot escaped justice but Saddam will not.