|
Sixteen
years after the Kurdish town was hit by a poison gas
attack, a man alleged to have supplied the chemicals
could be brought to justice.
Alwan Ali has daily reminders of the horrific day in
1988 when she lost seven members of her family
members following a chemical attack on the Kurdish
village of Halabja.
Even now, 16 years on, she still has difficulty
breathing and trouble with her eyesight.
But for Alwan and thousands of others, closure on
the issue could be just around the corner, following
the December 6 arrest of 62-year-old Frans Van
Anraat, a Dutch citizen taken into custody in the
Netherlands to answer allegations that he supplied
Saddam Hussein with the means to make chemical
weapons.
Alwan is one of more than 6,000 Halabja residents
who have signed a petition calling for Van Anraat’s
prosecution. He is now likely to be charged with
participating in genocide and war crimes.
In the now infamous attack, which took place during
the Iran-Iraq war, the government military dropped
chemical weapons on Halabja, close to the Iranian
border.
The March 16, 1988 attack killed more than 5,000
people and left an additional 10,000 with long term
injuries.
"We have collected a lot of visual documentary
evidence on the Halabja tragedy that indicates that
Van Anraat was able to supply chemical materials to
Saddam," said Alwan, now 26.
Victims of the chemical attack and their relatives
welcomed the news of the recent arrest, with many
saying they want to be present in court during Van
Anraat's trial in the Netherlands.
A majority have also volunteered to testify against
Van Anraat, who is accused of selling Saddam’s
regime thousands of tons of the materials needed to
make mustard and nerve gas between 1984 and 1988.
Former Halabja resident Dalia Ali has said she will
do whatever she can to assist the case against Van
Anraat.
Like many of the victims, Dalia still bears physical
and mental scars from the mustard gas attack.
"I have many diseases and I get sick quickly because
of the chemicals I inhaled that day," said Dalia,
who now lives in the Netherlands.
In a bid to strengthen the prosecution’s case, a
group of Halabja victims are now trying to record
the names of all the people who died in the attack.
Another committee has been formed to visit towns
across the border in Iran in an attempt to gather
more evidence of chemical attacks.
"The Iranians have better records than the Iraqis,
as they were able to film in Halabja a few days
after the chemical attacks," explained Ibrahim
Hawrami, manager of the Halabja Memorial
Directorate, and the man responsible for maintaining
records of the attack. "Left wing political parties
in Holland have promised to cooperate with us on
this."
Halabja residents have been pressing for Van
Anraat's arrest since the US-led invasion of Iraq
last year.
In November 2003, Halabja officials submitted a
request that Van Anraat be prosecuted to the
Coalition Provisional Authority, the Iraqi Governing
Council, and the chairman of the Council of
Ministers of the Sulaimaniyah administration,
Hawrami told IWPR.
It is not the first time an attempt has been made to
bring charges against Van Anraat for his alleged
involvement in the Halabja attacks. At the request
of the United States, he was arrested in Italy in
1989 but managed to escape to Iraq where he lived
until the 2003 invasion. He then fled to the
Netherlands, where he has now been arrested.
Amanj Khalil is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
http://www.iwpr.net
Top |
® 