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Kurdish witness bares attack scars in Saddam trial
19.9.2006
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BAGHDAD, Iraq, September 19 ,-- A former Kurdish
guerrilla fighter removed his shirt in a marbled
Baghdad courtroom on Tuesday to show what he said
were scars caused by a chemical attack ordered by
Saddam Hussein in the 1980s.
Iskandar Mahmoud Abdul-Rahman told Saddam's trial
for genocide against ethnic Kurds how he and other
comrades from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan were
gassed after fleeing to a village in Iraq's northern
Kurdistan region.
"I began vomiting and I was dizzy, my eyes burned
and I couldn't stand," said Abdul-Rahman, a
bespectacled and clean-shaven man wearing a grey
suit.
"I regained consciousness after 10 days and saw my
body had been burned completely. The doctors were
giving me injections and medication including eye
drops frequently. They cut the burned skin with
scissors. I can show the court my scars that are
still visible on my body," he said.
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Former dictator Saddam Hussein (R), and his cousin Ali Hassan Al-Majeed
known as "Chemical Ali" (L)
Photo : AFP |
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After the judged agreed, the witness took off his
blue shirt, showing several scars on his back,
roughly 20 centimeters (8 inches) long.
Saddam, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as
"Chemical Ali", and five others face war crimes and
crimes against humanity for the 1988 Anfal campaign
or Spoils of War.
Saddam and Majeed also face the graver charges of
genocide. If found guilty all men face death by
hanging.
More than 20 witnesses have so far taken the stand,
mostly Kurdish villagers describing the destruction
caused by Anfal.
On Monday, another former Kurdish guerrilla took off
dark glasses in court to show the swollen lids of
his eyes, which he said were permanently damaged by
nerve poison that completely blinded him for six
months.
Prosecutors say more than 180,000 people died in the
campaign and thousands of villages were destroyed,
some gassed.
Saddam has defended his Sunni-led government's
policy of attacking Kurdish militias fighting
alongside Shi'ite Iran against Iraq during the last
phases of the Iraq-Iran war as striking legitimate
military targets.
Saddam is also awaiting a verdict in another case,
for the deaths of Shi'ite villagers killed after a
failed attempt on his life in 1982. The Anfal trial
does not cover the most notorious use of chemical
weapons, against the village of Halabja, which is to
be covered by a separate trial.
Reuters
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