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Protesting Iraqi Kurds demand 'Chemical
Ali' hanged
23.11.2007
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November 23, 2007
RIZGARY, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- Around
1,500 people Thursday staged a protest in Iraq's
northern Kurdistan region demanding that death
sentences imposed on "Chemical Ali" and two other
cohorts of Saddam Hussein for the slaughter of
ethnic Kurds be carried out.
The protestors, men, women and children, staged the
demonstration at Rizgary, about 140 kilometres (90
miles) south of the major Kurdish city of
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan's cultural capital.
They demanded that Ali Hassan al-Majid, widely known
as "Chemical Ali" for his use of poisonous gas
against Kurds; Sultan Hashim al-Tai, Saddam's
defence minister; and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, his
armed forces deputy chief of operations, be hanged
without delay.
The three were sentenced to death on June 24 for the
killing of thousands of ethnic Kurds in the
so-called Anfal (Spoils) campaign of 1988.
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Ali Hassan al-Majid, first cousin of executed
dictator Saddam Hussein and also known as 'Chemical
Ali', 'Butcher of Kurdistan' sentenced to death over Kurdish genocide, AP |
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Anfal was an anti-Kurdish campaign led by the former
regime between 1986 and 1989 and involved a series
of military campaigns against the Kurdish Peshmerga
fighters as well as the mostly Kurdish civilian
population of southern Kurdistan 'Northern Iraq'.
Independent sources estimate there were more than 100,000 deaths in the campaign, in which
chemical weapons were used, while Kurds claim about
182,000 Kurds were killed.
www.ekurd.net
Waving Kurdistan flags, the demonstrators, most of
them related to victims of the slaughter, demanded
"justice" for their missing loved ones.
They expressed anger at talk of possible clemency
for one of the men, Sultan Hashim, and denounced
what they said was "political interference" in the
justice system.
Under Iraqi law, the three men were supposed to have
been executed by October 4, 30 days after their
sentences were upheld by the Iraq Supreme Court.
But because two members of the presidential council
-- President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice
President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni -- have refused
to sign the execution orders, the sentences have yet
to be carried out.
The United States, which is holding Majid and the
two other convicts, has said it will not hand them
over for execution until the legal row is settled.
Talabani, who is opposed on principle to the death
penalty, has repeatedly come out in defence of
Sultan Hashim, while Hashemi fears that his
execution could undermine already stuttering
reconciliation efforts in post-Saddam Iraq.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told reporters
at the weekend that the issue was in the hands of
the High Court, whose decision would be binding.
www.ekurd.net
The court, he said, had to decide whether the
approval of the presidential council is needed, and
if so, what is the legal situation if this is not
granted.
Other protests will be held in the autonomous
Kurdistan region in the coming days, culminating in
a major demonstration in the provincial capital
Erbil, said one of the organisers Pishro Rashid,
without giving a date.
AFP
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