Leader of Iraq's Chaldean Catholics Dies

[Aidoneus]

somewhat short piece, just 11 paragraphs.

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Patriarch Raphael I Bidawid, spiritual leader of Iraq's Chaldean Catholics, has died after a long illness. He was 81.

The Vatican's missionary news service Fides said he died Monday in Beirut, Lebanon, where he had been hospitalized for several months. The cause of death was not given.

Bidawid was an outspoken opponent of the economic embargo on Iraq, imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Some accused him of being an apologist for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, but he responded that he was only defending his country.

During a 1991 visit to the Vatican he accused the Gulf War allies of genocide against the Iraqi people.

``These nations should feel pretty guilty. It was a vendetta, a shame for humanity,'' he said.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2884054,00.html