|
Iraqi Kurds commemorate chemical attack
17.3.2007 |
|
|
|
March 17, 2007
HALABJA, Kurdistan region (Iraq) - Traffic
stopped and people stood still in the streets
despite rain for a period of silence Friday as Kurds
in Kurdistan (northern Iraq) commemorated the
anniversary of a 1988 chemical weapons attack that
killed an estimated 5,600 people.
Saddam Hussein had ordered the attack as part of a
scorched-earth campaign to crush a Kurdish rebellion
in the north, seen as aiding Iran in the final
months of its war with Iraq. The ousted leader was
executed for other crimes against humanity before he
could face trial for Halabja.
Hundreds of victims' relatives and local officials
also gathered in the city hall in Halabja, 150 miles
northeast of Baghdad, and lit 19 candles to
symbolize the 19 years since the massacre took
place.
"Each year on this day, I remember the vicious
attack carried out by Saddam against the peaceful
city," Tuba Abid, 53, who lost 22 relative in the
attack.
"The execution of Saddam has reduced my pains and I
feel more secure after the death of this dictator,"
she said, laying roses on a victims' monument in
Halabja.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had planned to attend
the ceremony, but his plane was unable to land at
the airport and was forced to return to Baghdad
because of the bad weather, Kurdish officials said.
Moments of silence were held in Halabja, Dahuk,
Erbil and Sulaimaniyah.
An estimated 5,600 people died on one day in March
1988. Many survivors still suffer the effects of
nerve and mustard gas.
Othman Abdullah, 26, lost his brother during the
attack, and said his father died last year from
kidney failure and his mother of respiratory
problems after years of illness stemming from the
chemical agents.
"I watched the slow painful deaths of my father and
mother and wondered when their suffering would end.
I could not afford to send them outside Iraq so that
they could receive the proper medical treatment," he
said. "After losing my brother, mother and father,
life has become meaningless to me."
Abdullah criticized the regional government of
autonomous Kurdistan of doing little to help the
victims of the chemical attack.
"The officials have done nothing to heal my father
and mother, but the government is ready to send the
children of the officials abroad if they receive the
slightest injury," he said.
Saddam was hanged for the killings of Shiites
following a 1982 attempt to assassinate him in the
town of Dujail. After his death, a second trial in
which he was also a defendant — for the deaths of
100,000 Kurds in the so-called Anfal campaign --
continued without him in Baghdad.
Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as
"Chemical Ali" for allegedly using chemical weapons
against Kurds, is one of six defendants still on
trial for the Anfal campaign.
The Anfal case does not include the Halabja deaths,
which Iraqi officials say are still being
investigated.
AP
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 