14 March 2003
Text: Halabja Massacre Remembered Fifteen Years Later
(State Department recalls the victims and pledges to end chemical threat in Iraq) (400) Following is the text of the statement made by State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher recalling the March 16, 1988, chemical attack by Saddam Hussein's forces on the Kurdish village of Halabja in northern Iraq. On that day, an estimated 5,000 innocent civilians were killed and 10,000 were injured. (begin text) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman March 14, 2003 Statement by Richard Boucher, Spokesman Fifteenth Anniversary of the Halabja Massacre Sunday marks the fifteenth anniversary of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons attack on Halabja, a predominantly Kurdish village in northeastern Iraq. On March 16, 1988, the Iraqi military attacked the people of Halabja with mustard gases and other poison gases, killing roughly 5,000 civilians and injuring another 10,000. Fifteen years later, the lingering effects of this attack include an abnormally high incidence of neurological disorders, birth defects, miscarriages, serious disease and cancer. The attack was not an isolated incident, but part of a systematic campaign against Iraqi Kurdish civilians in the region, ordered by Saddam Hussein and executed by his lieutenant, Ali Hassan al-Majid, best known by his nick-name, "Chemical Ali". During this 1988 campaign, international observers estimate that Iraqi forces killed 50,000 to 100,000 people. The Iraqis called this campaign "Anfal", which means "the spoils." The Iraqi regime also used chemical weapons to kill and maim many thousands of Iranians during the Iran-Iraq War from 1981 to 1988. It is actions such as these and the regime's long established practice of torture, and persecution to which President Bush referred in his most recent State of the Union address. As the President said, when referring to the Iraqi regime's utter contempt for human rights and international conventions, and its willingness to use weapons of mass destruction on innocent civilians, "If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning." The United States of America wishes to take this opportunity to remember the uncounted thousands of ordinary people, mostly innocent civilians, who have died and suffered under the brutal reign of the current Iraqi regime, and to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that Saddam Hussein and his henchmen can never again use weapons such as these against the international community, its neighbors, or its own people. (end text) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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