20 years since gas attack in Iraq killed villagers

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F6B0D713-9330-4466-82ED-7D208EE86E95.htm

snip


Iraqi Kurds remember the deaths of 5,000 villagers killed 20 years ago in chemical attacks in Halabja blamed on Saddam Hussein's forces during the Iran-Iraq war.

Kurdish villagers dressed in black to mark the anniversary of March 16, 1988.

Ceremonies were also held in Baghdad, the capital, and the main Kurdish city of Arbil.

Victims' families also used Sunday's anniversary to renew their demands for compensation and to demand that those behind the killings be hanged.

Suad Hassan, 50, a Halabja resident, said: "My three brothers and parents died in the attacks. I am the only survivor from my family."
"We want compensation and we also demand that Ali Hassan al-Majid be executed in Halabja."

Majid was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court last year, charged with genocide and found guilty of overseeing the killing of 180,000 Kurds in the 1988 Anfal campaign. Legal arguments have delayed his execution.

Some Kurds, who still see a higher cancer rate and other health problems 20 years later, are also demanding that the companies which supplied the Iraqi government with chemical weapons be sued.

Ahmed Abdallah, 75, a villager, said: "My nine children died in the attacks. I had six daughters and three sons. We want the company which supplied the gas to be prosecuted."

snip

Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, said Iraq had plans to seek compensation from companies and countries which supplied chemicals.

"We are also approaching the United Nations to declare March 16 as an international day against chemical arms," al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

***
I was outraged when this happened, and wondered why everyone in the western sphere was so silent about Saddam's evils then.

I fully support the proposal to declare March 16 as an International Day Against Chemical Arms. It's something that both liberal and conservative hypocrites should be able to support, one would think.