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Key witness 'fled' from inquiry into
chemical attack on Iraqi Kurds
23.12.2008
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December 23, 2008
SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — An
Iraqi court has been told that a pilot allegedly
responsible for poisoning Iraqi Kurds in the north
of the country in 1988 has disappeared. The pilot,
Tareq Ramadan, is accused of dropping toxic chemical
bombs on the city of Halabja in an attack that
occurred on 16 March 1988.
Ramadan had been detained in a hospital in the
region but apparently fled from the area over a year
ago.
"The pilot is one of those accused of this crime and
not a simple witness," said an unnamed Kurdish
source who confirmed the news.
Ramadan was to have been tried in the controversial
case involving Ali Hassan al-Majid, cousin of former
dictator Saddam Hussein, better known as 'Chemical
Ali'. |
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
in June 2007 |
Ali Hassan al-Majeed, a Sunni Arab who was Saddam's
cousin and a member of his inner circle,www.ekurd.net
has already
been sentenced to death twice,
once in 2007 for genocide his
role in killing tens of thousands of Kurds in
Saddam's military "Anfal" campaign.
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'.
The campaign,
in which chemical weapons were used, Anfal operation
crackdown that killed nearly 200,000 Kurdish
civilians and guerrillas.
Al-Majid was sentenced to death for the
second time on 2 December for
brutally repressing a Shia revolt after the 1991
Gulf War. But he earned his notorious nickname for
his role in using poison gas against Kurdish
villages.
Hundreds of Iraqi
Kurds demanded on Sunday
the execution of a Saddam-era official known as
"Chemical Ali" for the killing of 5,000 Kurds in a
1988 gas attack in Halabja city.
The three other defendants are former Iraqi Defense
Minister Sultan Hashim and former Baath regime
officials Farhan Saleh and Saber Al-Douri.
The source stressed that "the presence of this pilot
at the court hearing was necessary and very
important",www.ekurd.net
particularly because the confessions that he made
during the investigations.
He also said many former Iraqi leaders had denied
their involvement in the execution of this crime.
"We do not know where these things will go now that
it has been confirmed that the accused has fled," he
said.
Local media quoted a source for the Kurdish Minister
for the Victims of al-Anfal - the genocidal campaign
against the Kurds - saying he had expressed his
"shock" at the pilot's disappearance.
"His appearance would have really helped the cause
very much," said the source.
The first session of the court hearing began on
Sunday with testimony from one of the survivors who
lost six children from the chemical attack. The case
continued on Tuesday with evidence from another
eight survivors.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, adnkronos
com | Agencies
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