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Iraqi Kurds still burying victims of
chemical attacks 20 years ago
16.3.2008
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March 16, 2008
HALABJA, Kurdistan region 'Iraq' -- Ismail
Abdallah Rashid was buried two days ago in
Kurdistan, the northern Iraqi Kurdish village of
Halabja -- his body finally succumbed to the effects
of gas attacks carried out by Saddam Hussein's
forces on this day 20 years ago.
Rashid becomes the latest in the still-growing toll
of around 5,000 Kurdish villagers from Halabja who
have so far died from the chemical attacks carried
out on March 16, 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war.
Dozens of others are still suffering the
after-effects of one of the biggest military strikes
by Saddam's forces on Iraq's Kurds and two decades
later, survivors continue to bury loved ones
poisoned by the gas.
"Ismail had been helping bury the victims of the gas
attacks on Halabja when he himself was poisoned by
the chemicals. He died on Friday," said Luqman
Mohammed,www.ekurd.net
one of the founders of
Halabja Victims' Society, a non-profit organisation
representing victims.
Mohammed added that Rashid had since the poisoning
suffered severe asthma, which slowly killed him.
The attack on Halabja was among a series of military
assaults carried out by Saddam's forces in the 1980s
in the northern Kurdish regions of Iraq.
Bahar Hassan, 40, a primary school teacher, recalls
the "terrible" events of March 16, 1988, which she
says are still fresh in her mind.
"Dozens of children and women were killed by the
chemical bombing. Their pain and trauma needs to be
addressed," Hassan told AFP.
"We need more private hospitals to deal with the
victims who are still suffering."
The Halabja Victims' Society wants the perpetrators
of the gas attacks to be hanged.
"We are demanding that the government execute Ali
Hassan al-Majid and his associates," said Aras Abid,
spokesman for the organisation.
"We are not concerned whether he is executed in
Halabja or not. What is important is that he is
executed somewhere in Iraq."
Majid, the top hatchet man of Saddam and who
spearheaded the strikes against the Kurds, has been
sentenced to death for genocide after he was found
guilty of overseeing the killing of 182,000 Kurds in
the 1988 Anfal campaign in which around 4,000
villages were attacked.
At the end of February Iraq's presidency endorsed
the execution of Majid, known to the world as
"Chemical Ali", but no date has been set to carry it
out.
Saddam's regime said the Anfal campaign was a
necessary counter-insurgency operation during Iraq's
1980-1988 war with Iran. |
Chemical attacks in Halabja
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, |
Majid's execution has
been delayed following a series of legal wranglings.
"We are vehemently criticising the delay in Majid's
execution. He ruined and destroyed the area," said a
statement by another local group, the Halabja
Organisation for Anfal Resistance.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
AFP
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