In this post yesterday, I showed how the like of Tony Blair, Jack Straw and Geoff Hoon had no interest in the plight of the people of Iraq until it suited their agenda. They failed to sign four Early Day Motions condemning Saddam’s gassing of the Kurds at Halabja or contibute to adjournment debates on the matter.

But they soon got up to speed. In the now notorious dossier on Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction - the one that made great play of the “45 minutes from doom” claim - much was made of the attack on Halabja.

On Friday, 17th March 1988, the village of Halabja was bombarded by Iraqi warplanes. The raid was over in minutes. Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against his own people. A Kurd described the effects of a chemical attack on another village:

“My brothers and my wife had blood and vomit running from their noses and their mouths. Their heads were tilted to one side. They were groaning. I couldn’t do much, just clean up the blood and vomit from their mouths and try in every way to make them breathe again. I did artificial respiration on them and then I gave them two injections each. I also rubbed creams on my wife and two brothers.”

(From “Crimes Against Humanity,” Iraqi National Congress.)

But like I said, at the time there was nary a squeak from the one-day liberators of Iraq. Only when they needed to persuade a sceptical nation did they truly embrace the horror of what Saddam had done.

In February 2003, Jack Straw said of the atrocity:

Memories of this incident in the west may have been dulled by the passage of time. But the Iraqi Kurds will forever bear the scars. Only this morning, I heard Baram Salhi, a leading political figure in northern Iraq, urging those who counsel indefinite containment of Saddam to reconsider.

I ask you to imagine the lasting psychological impact on the British public of a chemical weapons attack - carried out by the armed forces - against one of our minority ethnic groups. Fourteen years afterwards, would anyone suggest that such an attack would not leave the public in constant fear of a repeat?

Tony Blair evoked the horror in his speech to the TUC in September 2002:

Scores of towns and villages were attacked. Iraqi military officials dressed in full protection gear were used to witness the attacks and visited later to assess the damage. Wounded civilians were normally shot on the scene. In one attack alone, on the city of Halabja, it is estimated that 5,000 were murdered and 9,000 wounded in this way. All in all in the North around 100,000 kurds died, according to Amnesty International.

Colin Powell, standing on the very spot where the gas attack took place, addressed the people:

I can’t tell you that Saddam Hussein was a murderous tyrant - you know that. What I can tell you is that what happened here in 1988 is never going to happen again.

As recently as April 20, Condoleeza Rice was citing Halabja as a major reason for toppling Saddam during an interview in Russia:

QUESTION: (in Russian) One more question on Iraq. Our listener, Sergei: every year more people die in Iraq than under Saddam and the concealed conflicts have surfaced. Wasn’t it a mistake to remove Saddam?

SECRETARY RICE: Of course not; it was not a mistake to remove Saddam. Saddam Hussein was one of the most brutal dictators of modern times. This is a man who had rape rooms, who tortured people. He used weapons of mass destruction against his own people and against his neighbors, chemical weapons.

You know, if you go to Halabja in Iraq, you will see the effects of the chemical weapons that he used on these people, where the incidence of cancer is very high, where people still have burns on their skin from the chemical weapons that he used.

Saddam Hussein invaded his neighbors twice. He refused to live up to the obligations that he undertook to the international community. You know, I would remind that Russia was a party to the resolution in 1991 that told Saddam Hussein to get out of Kuwait and then party to a series of resolutions that had demands on Saddam Hussein. So, it was a very important positive step for Saddam Hussein to be removed.

“So they were late in a condemning the atrocities of Saddam Hussein,” you say. “They got there eventually and showing what Saddam did to the Kurds gave them leverage to oust the dictator and give the Kurds a better life,” you tell me. “Now, Saddam is gone we can get on with giving the Kurds their lives back,” you reassure me.

You’re wrong, I say:

The New York Times - Security vs. Rebuilding: Kurdish Town Loses Out

HALABJA, Iraq, April 11 - For years Nuradeen Ghreeb has dreamed of bringing clean drinking water to his hometown. That town happens to be Halabja, where 17 years ago he and his parents cowered in a basement as Saddam Hussein’s airplanes attacked with chemical weapons, killing at least 5,000 people.

But on Sunday, Mr. Nuradeen learned that his dream was over, because the United States had canceled the water project it had planned here as part of a vast effort to rebuild Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Ordinarily a quiet and reserved civil engineer, he sat on one of his beloved water pipes on hearing the news and wept, his tears glistening in the afternoon sun.

Read that again. Take a deep breath and try to remain calm.

That’s Halabja. First ignored, then brought to the fore, and now ignored again. Well, what possible purpose do these people serve to Blair and Bush and Straw and Rice any more?

The Halabja project, worth around $10 million, accounted for a small fraction of the $18.4 billion that Congress approved in 2003 for the reconstruction of Iraq, including $4 billion for water and sewage projects. But with the outbreak of insurgency in central and southern Iraq last year, the United States shifted $3.4 billion from water, electricity and oil projects to pay for training and equipping the Iraqi Army and police forces.

Because of the mess we created, we have to divert funds away from projects that were clearing up the mess that Saddam created. Because we didn’t plan adequately for the aftermath of the war, and we let Iraq subsequently become a basket case - a honey pot for every yahoo with an AK-47 and a boner for his virgins - we can’t now look after the people we said we were invading the country to save.

Blair said yesterday: “I can’t say I am sorry about it. I am not sorry about it. I think I did the right thing.” That’s did the right thing. Not doing the right thing. The line’s been drawn. It’s all in the past. Tony’s moved on.

Who speaks for Halabja now?

(Story via the Guardian Diary and the mighty, mighty, Get Your War On.)

Posted on April 26th, 2005 at 4:00 pm

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