On the 16th of March in 1988 the town of Halabja was bombarded with chemical weapons by the Iraqi Baath regime led by Saddam Hussein. Within minutes more than 5 000 civilians were killed by the poisonous gases and large numbers wounded and crippled. Birds and animals in large numbers were also killed, and crops contaminated.
Thousands of wounded are suffering gruesome after effects to this day, and the soil still contains traces of the poisons in many places.
The barbarous attack on Halabja was linked to a sustained campaign by the Iraqi regime to depopulate the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, a campaign known by the name "anfal". Chemical weapons were an integral part of this campaign both as a means to kill large numbers of the Kurdish civilian population and as a means to force the survivors to flee the area.
The central element of the anfal campaign was the total destruction of thousands of villages and towns, and the forced resettlement of the remaining population in strategic hamlets. More than 180 000 people are known to have disappeared during the campaign, and must be presumed killed. Mass graves containing the remains of some of these victims have been discovered various places in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Numerous international observers have concluded that the anfal-campaign clearly constitutes an act of genocide on the part of the Iraqi regime. A detailed study published by Human Rights Watch and Middle East Watch together in 1993 documents the various stages of the campaign. (GENOCIDE IN IRAQ The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/)
Moreover numerous reports were published in the aftermath of this bombardment about the complicity of Western enterprises who supplied Saddam Hussein with large quantitives of chemicals and/or the installations needed to produce these.
It is now time that the international community recognizes the scale and purpose of the anfal campaign, that the suffering of the victims is recognised and their lawful rights be restored.
The European Green Party recognizes the anfal campaign and the gassing of Halabja as parts of a sustained genocidal campaign directed by the baath regime against the Kurdish population.
The European Green Party urges its member parties to raise this issue in all relevant forums, such as parliaments and international organizations and also urges that in doing so proposals will be introduced to bring these companies before the court and to ensure that compensation will be paid to the victims and their successors.
Conclusion
The EGP recommends the European Parliament to send a fact finding delegation in the spring of 2008 to assess the situation.
