Halabja attack chemical suppliers sued

Families of the victims of the 1988 chemical attack on Iraqi Kurdish city of Halabja are taking legal action against foreign firms for supplying chemical substances to the country’s former dictator Saddam Hussein, Press TV reports.

Head of Halabja’s Chemical Victims Society Luqman Abdul-Qadir has called on the relatives of the victims to file lawsuits against the firms that armed the Iraqi dictator with chemical weapons.

“Firstly, the people who committed these crimes cannot ignore this case because they are part of the crime. Secondly, it’s to make sure that crimes like Halabja will not happen again because they may happen again somewhere else if not dealt with accordingly, and thirdly, it’s to compensate the families of the victims,” Addul-Qadir said.

Almost 750 people have reportedly registered lawsuits so far. Studies suggest that the chemical arms came from countries like Germany, France, Britain and the United States.

In this regard, Ayad Kakayi with the Erbil-based Kurdistan Bar Association said, “We have their contracts to sell chemicals and we know that the Ba’ath regime and Saddam Hussein used them not to serve people but to hurt humanity. It’s clear that the businessmen came to talk to them anyway and sold these chemicals through illegal channels.”

More than 5,000 people, mostly Kurds, were killed after Iraqi planes dropped chemical bombs on Halabja and its suburbs under the leadership of Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam’s cousin, on March 16, 1988.

Another 7,000 were injured, crippled, or suffered long-term health problems in the biggest poison gas attack in history.

Victims of the Halabja genocide say they are determined to seek justice from any country or business involved in selling chemical weapons to the Ba’athist regime of Saddam Hussein.