News and Commentary on Politics, Media and Culture

Another chapter in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq will soon come to a close as Kurd’s will watch Ali Hassan al-Majid (aka Chemical Ali) hang from the gallows for crimes against humanity.

The chief judge, Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah read the sentencing order aloud.

The chief judge, Mohammed al-Oreibi al-Khalifah, told Majid that he had ordered troops to kill or persecute Kurdish Iraqi civilians.

“You subjected them to wide and systematic attacks using chemical weapons and artillery,” he said in the televised trial.

“You led the killing of Iraqi villagers. You restricted them in their areas, burnt their orchards, killed their animals. You committed genocide.”

Many of the Kurds killed in 1988 were buried in mass graves, only some of which have been discovered.

The Anfal (Spoils of War) campaign was the culmination of years of efforts by Saddam Hussein’s regime to suppress the Kurds in the north, our correspondent adds.

It was launched in early 1988 and lasted about seven months, involving attacks with chemical weapons, the destruction of some 2,000 villages, the complete depopulation of large areas and mass deportations.

A notorious massacre at Halabja in March 1988, in which 5,000 people were killed by gas, was not included in the charges as it was seen as being separate from the Anfal campaign.

The atrocities that were central to the trial are just part of Hussein’s past that we have discussed often here at Webloggin. Anfal is only the tip of crimes that Hussein’s government enabled and authorized. It begs the question that the left simply refuses to answer. How was life better under Saddam Hussein? Please don’t point out that these crimes occurred in 1998 and that Hussein played nice ever since. That would be a lie. He continued his murderous ways right up until he was routed out by American forces. This includes the little noticed deaths of those who were deliberately deprived food and medicine under the corrupt Oil for Food program that Hussein manipulated for the benefit of making sanctions appear harsher than they really were.

Chemical Ali will hang along side 2 other fellow defendants in the trial for the murder of 188,000 Kurds.

Previous Webloggin:

• Another Blow to the "Life Was Better under Saddam" Meme
• Iraqi Mass Grave, Average Age 11, 123 Women and Children Shot in the Back of the Head
• Picture of the Day - Iraqi Mass Graves, Women and Children
• LA Times – Iraq - Victims in Mass Graves Hid Clues in Clothing
• Ramsey Clark says hanging Saddam would lead to “the end of Civilization”
• Head Judge in Genocide Trial Pals up to Saddam Hussein

Others: Captains Quarters, Gateway Pundit (Warning: Graphic Images Of The Chemical Attack at Gateway Pundit)

 Send this post a Friend  

Trackback URI | Comments RSS