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Many
chemical attack victims say its mastermind should be
tried and executed in Halabja, but others want him
to confront consequences of his actions.
Pensioner Soiba Muhammed lost her two daughters,
three sons and husband when the Baathist regime
dropped chemical bombs on the Iraqi Kurdistan city
of Halabja 16 years ago. She herself was blinded.
“We don’t need to have witnesses at Ali Hasan
Majeed’s trial,” she said. “The whole world bore
witness to his crimes. The sooner he is dealt with,
the better."
For clog maker, Mu'min Hama-Arif, who lost 24
members of his family in the attack, seeing the man
known as Chemical Ali go on trial is a dream come
true.
"I'm just afraid he won't be executed because people
start talking about human rights,” he said. “What
does that man know about human rights?”
While some Halabja victims would prefer that Majeed
not be executed, none of them are talking about
forgiveness. Eight members of Maliha Ali Faraj’s
family were killed in the attack. “I hope he rots
away in jail and gets eaten by worms,” he said.
Chia Hama-Saeed, a civil servant at Halabja’s
Martyrs Hospital, shares Maliha's view. Both Hama-Saeed
and her brother were half-blinded by the poisonous
gas attack, and their mother died of a cancer they
relate directly too the chemical doses they
received. “Chemical Ali should be kept in a jail
where he can see the graveyard and the destroyed
streets of our town,” she said. “He and Saddam
should not be killed, they should be made to die a
little every day."
Despite the pain that Majeed’s name conjures up for
Halabja’s victims, most of them have welcomed the
news of his impending trial. Asaeesh Khalid had
planned to study law at the University of Baghdad,
but was forced to give up her place when it became
clear that her parents were still too ill to live
alone, “My mother suffers from several diseases and
my father was blinded. What could be more fitting
for me than to see the person who hurt my family
prosecuted before my very eyes.”
The Imam of Halabja’s Abu Bakri Siddiq Mosque, Ahmed
Muhammed, believes Majeed should feel the full force
of Islamic law, preaching an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth. “He treated people violently and
should suffer accordingly,” he said, but stops short
of recommending he receive the death penalty. “He
should be made to confront his crimes before the
whole world."
Some Halabjans, however, feel the trial is nothing
more than a showpiece. “Taking someone to court
won’t bring 5,000 people back from the dead,” argued
student Sardar Ali.
Haseeba Muhamed, who lost 12 members of her family
and suffers from eye, throat and chest diseases,
agrees. After living in the central Iraqi city of
Samara for 11 years, she recently returned to
Halabja. "The only fitting punishment would be to
hand him over to me to cut out a piece of his flesh
everyday,” she said.
A large majority of Halabjans are adamant that
Majeed’s trial must take place in the town itself,
not Baghdad. Salar Mahmood, a member of the National
Guard, voiced the opinion of many, saying, “He needs
to be prosecuted before the eyes of the people of
Halabja."
Talar Nadir is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
http://www.iwpr.net
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