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Survivors of Halabja chemical attacks
complain about the KRG treating
5.12.2006
By Sahand Nadir |
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December 5,
2006
Kurdistan Region (Iraq): Victims of chemical
weapons feel abandoned by the authorities
Today, a group of 350 victims and survivors of
Halabja attacks complain about the KRG and the way
it is treating them.
It was nearly two decades ago, in the first quarter
of 1988, when the Kurdish city of Halabja came under
chemical weapons attacks at the hands of Saddam
Hussein and his regime, killing thousands of
innocent men, women, and children. These attacks
were considered the largest-scale chemical weapons
attack against a civilian population in modern
times.
The attacks began early in the evening of March 16,
when a group of eight aircraft began dropping
chemical bombs, which continued all night. They
involved multiple chemical agents, including mustard
gas, and the nerve agents sarin, tuban and VX.
According to some sources, the chemicals used in the
attacks also contained blood agent hydrogen cyanide,
which is still causing deaths among the city's
population.
Today, a group of 350 victims and survivors of these
attacks complain about the Kurdistan Regional
Government and the way it is treating them.
Joanne Karim, 35, who was a survivor of the 1988
chemical attacks, started showing signs of illnesses
caused by the gas 18 years later. In July of this
year, she was sent to Iran for treatment where she
later due to the severity of her condition. Two
months later, Nimat Hawrami, another former survivor
died of the same symptoms and effects at a hospital
in Halabja.
Aras Abid, former president of the Chemical Victims
Society, says, "More than 23 people, who were
obvious cases of the chemical attacks of 1988, have
recently died." He adds that this figure is much
lower than the real number of deaths believed to
have been caused by the same factor. "The reasons
behind the previously-reported deaths were not fully
confirmed due to the lack in well-equipped
laboratories to examine them."
Aras complains that the Kurdish government is not
paying enough attention to the victims of the
chemical attacks. He says, "If the quality
examinations that were conducted in Iranian
Kurdistan were also conducted in Halabja, then the
victims of Halabja, too, would have been included in
the list of all victims, and thus looked at
differently."
Professor Salih Ahmed, an immunologist working with
the victims of the gas attacks as his main field of
research, believes that 80% of the aftermath
survivors have immune system complications.
Three-quarters of the victims have respiratory
difficulties, with half of all the victims still
facing vision and skin impediments.
Prof. Ahmed adds that there are patients who are
infected with all four types of the illnesses
mentioned, and there are no signs of improvement in
any one of them, other than getting worse by the
day. "Many of the infected individuals whom I had
previously examined are no longer alive," he says.
"Chemical weapons have a significant effect on
anyone who has experienced it, particularly those
who have been exposed to the gas through
their breathing system - they are the ones who are
constantly getting worse."
This worsening, he says, is due to the fact that the
cells of the lungs of these patients have become
cancerous. Another very dangerous and threatening
case is in those whose immune systems have been
jeopardized.
Mr. Kamil, a survivor of the attacks is another
individual who complains to the Kurdish regional
government for ignoring those like himself.
Currently on an executive member of the Chemical
Victims Society, Mr. Kamal adds that although a
small number of the victims may have been sent
abroad for treatment; however, there are many more
who still need to be sent.
Mr. Muhammad Faraj, another executive member of the
mentioned organization says a committee, which was
formed upon their request to examine the victims of
the weapons, completed its tasks last October.
According to the report given by the committee, 69
of these victims are urgent and require they be sent
outside for treatment.
This is at a time when the total number of
individuals suspected of carrying similar illnesses
is somewhere close to 350. He demands once again
that the government take another look at the victims
of the chemical weapons and to provide them with
more care.
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