17^th January 2010

On 16^th March 1988, the city of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan was attacked with chemical bombs by Iraqi military airplanes. At the end of the same month civilians in the Garmian and Qaradakh areas were targeted by “Anfal”, and then the military operation was prolonged to the borders with Iran. “Anfal” was a military campaign against the Kurdish civilian inhabitants in the Kurdish villages.  It was implemented by the Iraqi regime with the support of pro-regime Kurdish armed forces known as “Afwaj Khafifa”.  It left the bodies of many in mass graves.

Several high ranking members of the Iraqi regime have been accused of being involved in that operation, and have been convicted and sentenced by the Iraqi special court.  Among them is Ali Hassan Majid known as (Chemical Ali), but many other army commanders and Kurdish armed leaders of Afwak al Khafifa, who had a role in the military campaign have not been charged with any crimes. Instead they have been welcomed and included in the power sharing arrangement by the current Iraqi government and the Kurdish authority. 

Recently more facts about that campaign have been revealed by both Jalal Talabani, the President of Iraq and the general secretary of  the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the ruling parties in the Kurdistan Regional Government, and his previous number two, Nawshirwan Mustafa, who is now the leader of the opposition ‘Gorran’, or ‘Change’ group. Jalal Talabani in his report to the 4^th Plenum of his party on 29-31October 2009, published in the Kurdistani New( the PUK official newspaper) on 25^th December 2009, said that Nawshirwan Mustafa had played a role in the Hallabja chemical attack. Talabani said:

“Nawshirwan Mustafa gave the military order to his comrades in the Halabja area to attack the Iraqi military bases with the Iranian army, to gain control over Halabja,...by doing that he gave a nasty excuse to the Iraqi regime, which was famous for their fascist behaviour, to use chemical bombs against Halabja. However, the Iraqi regime had threatened to use chemical bomb if we supported the Iranian military campaign anywhere, even in the crowded city of Sulaimanyah.” 

Nawshirwan Mustafa replied to Talabani in an article titled ‘From comradeship to accusation of dishonesty’, which was published on 5^th January 2010 on the Sbai website:

“In October 1986 an agreement of a wide range of military and logistic cooperation had been signed up in Tahran by both Talabani and the Iranian representative(Baqir Zulfaqar- the person in charge of Qarargai Ramazan), to cooperate together against the Iraqi military.

After that agreement a series of Military actions had been implemented between the PUK and the other parties Peshmarga (the guerrilla force), and the Iranian military forces against Iraqi military under the names of ”Fatih”, “Nasir” and “Fajir”… After that tens of military actions had been implemented and one of them was the “Dastani Rizgari” in the Chwarta area, which was close to the PUK headquarters and was chaired by Talabani directly. How such huge military actions, which many other opposition parties such as the KDP, Socialist, Islamic movement, and Badir army were involved in, could have been implemented if the PUK head members , and especially Talabani, had not agreed to  them.”

According to the announcements from Talabani and Nawsihrwan, who were the PUK’s leader and number two, the leadership of the KDP, the Socialist Party, the Islamic movement and the Badir Army, the military section of Majlis Al-Aala, all participated in allowing the catastrophe of the people of Halabja and the villagers in Garmian plus other areas of Kurdistan. We shouldn’t forget also that “Al-Fajir” was the military campaign between the PUK’s Guerrillas under the command of Nawshirwan Mustafa and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to attack the oil fields of Kirkuk in the early months of 1988.

Therefore, that military action was not only implemented by the Iraqi army and the pro-regime Kurdish leaders of Afwaj al Kahfifa, but also by the leaders of many other parties, including Masud Barzani, the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party’s leader, Muhamad Haji Mahmoud, the secretary of the Socialist-democratic Party, the Islamic movement leaders and the Badir army commanders.  They all had a role in that human tragedy. They all supported the Iranian army to attack the Iraqi armies. The Iraqi army used that excuse to retaliate by using chemical bombs against civilians and mass murdering them and burying them in mass graves.  

The accusations of Talabani and Naweishrwan show that the Iraqi regime and the pro-government armed Kurdish people are not the only parties to be jailed for being committed that crime. 

All those leaders of the above mentioned parties should be brought to justice and be trialed in an independent fair and free court. The Iraqi courts cannot act fairly and freely because they are influenced by those same parties.

Thus we demand that the Chemical and Anfal trials should be held by an independent, international court and justice.

 Email:wkpkac09 @yahoo.com,TEL:00447853243011, www.hkkurdistan.org