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Iraq: the Hanging of “Chemical Ali”

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Iraq: the Hanging of “Chemical Ali” INSTITUT KUDE RPARD IS E Information and liaison bulletin N°298 JANUARY 2010 The publication of this Bulletin enjoys a subsidy from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGCID) aqnd the Fonds d’action et de soutien pour l’intégration et la lutte contre les discriminations (The Fund for action and support of integration and the struggle against discrimination) This bulletin is issued in French and English Price per issue : France: 6 € — Abroad : 7,5 € Annual subscribtion (12 issues) France : 60 € — Elsewhere : 75 € Monthly review Directeur de la publication : Mohamad HASSAN Numéro de la Commission Paritaire : 659 15 A.S. ISBN 0761 1285 INSTITUT KURDE, 106, rue La Fayette - 75010 PARIS Tel. : 01-48 24 64 64 - Fax : 01-48 24 64 66 www.fikp.org E-mail: [email protected] Bulletin 298 January 2010 Contents • IRAQ: THE HANGING OF “CHEMICAL ALI”. • SYRIA: THE KURDS ARE IN AN INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION. • IRAN: 18 KURDS ARE WAITING FOR EXECUTION IN THE IRANIAN “DEATH ROWS”. • CULTURE: METIN MIRZA IS STAGING A SECOND PLAY IN ISTANBUL. • DIPLOMACY: MASRUR BARZANI’S SPEECH AT THE SENATE HOUSE. IRAQ: THE HANGING OF “CHEMICAL ALI” li al-Majid, nicknamed December 2008 for war crimes tal and bloody repressions “Chemical Ali”, a during the Shiite uprising that throughout the country. In A cousin of Saddam was drowned in blood in 1991. March 1987 he was given full Hussein and the main In March 2009, another court powers to crush the Kurdish organiser and enforcer found him guilty of murdering rebellion in the North of the of the Anfal campaign, was exe - dozens of Shiites in 1999 in country. Arrested in August cuted by hanging on the 25th of Baghdad’s Sadr City quarter. 2003, he was one of the 52 most this month. This was the fourth wanted people sought by the death sentence passed on Ali al- As one of the principal public Coalition forces, whose pictures Majid, all of which were for figures of the Baathist regime, had been printed on a set of crimes committed against Iraqi considered to be Saddam playing cards. Ali al-Majid was Kurds or Shiites. Thus he was Hussein’s right hand man, he the King of Spades on this set. sentenced to death in June 2007 was a member of the Command for having ordered the gas attack Council of the Revolution, the While the majority of the on the Kurdish town of Halabja highest organ of the Baghdad Kurdish and Shiite population on 16 March 1988, and then in regime, and ordered several bru - received with some satisfaction • 2 • Information and liaison bulletin n° 298 • January 2010 the announcing of his execution, team supported the sentence but that time, the Iraqi President, the Kurdistan Regional that they were, nevertheless fil - Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and his Government expressed its regret ing an appeal to secure a verdict Sunni Arab Vice-President Tariq about the terms of the sentence of genocide, even thought the al-Hashemi, had refused to sign itself, which does not include the recognition of “ crimes against the sentence, to eventually sign crime of “genocide”. This has humanity ” at Halabja could, it in February 2008. been demanded all along by the according to the lawyers, still Kurds, for the actions committed give the victims the possibility of in the course of the Anfal cam - filing civil suites to secure com - However, some political paign. Majid Hamad Amin pensation for their sufferings: observers consider that the Jamil, Kurdistan’s Minister for “We are suing the foreign compa - determination to press on rapid - Martyrs, stated: “ After having nies [that sold the chemical gases ly to carry out this execution is consulted several lawyers, we think used as weapons] and the Central not without some electoral ends, that the individual sentences are fair Government as well as the with the approach General enough but we have reservations Kurdistan Regional Government Elections in March 2010, espe - about the charge of “crimes against before International Courts ”. cially as the debate about the humanity” since we consider that banning of some candidates the gassing of Halabja, which killed The Kurdistan Regional close to the old regime has over 5,000 people, was an act of Government’s spokesman, Kawa revived anti-Baathist feelings, genocide aimed at the Kurdish peo - Mahmud, also expressed his particularly in Shiite circles. ple. We have decided to appeal government’s support of the against this sentence ”. appeal against this sentence: “ We “The death sentence passed on Ali consider the verdict a just one but al-Majid in the Halabja case, could The issue of recognising the the failure to officially recognise this be used by Prime Minister Nuri al- genocidal nature of the Anfal case as being one of genocide has Maliki in his election campaign ”, campaign would also allow an aroused fears among our people. We wrote the analyst Haj Jelow Mari increase in the compensation to are thus glad that the prosecution in the Iraqi daily Al-Mada. its victims as well as bringing has filed this appeal ”. “Maliki will thus be able to tell the about greater international street that it was he who that he was recognition of this dark page of The determination to appeal the one who had secured the execu - Kurdish history. Thousands of against the verdict does not, tion of Saddam Hussein and that he people are still suffering from however, mean a postponement would continue to take strict mea - physical after-effects due to the of the sentence. Goran Adham sures against Saddam’s former chemical gasses, let alone the even said he was convinced that assistants ”. psychic consequences, as the execution would be carried out even before the court of The execution finally took place The Kurdish jurist, Bakir Hama appeal had made its ruling as a week after the sentence was Sidiq, who himself had lost 23 the latter process would take passed. This time, unlike the members of his family during several months; as indeed was execution of Saddam Hussein, the 16 March 1988 attack on the case. no videos were shown of the Halabja, explained in his plea hanging and only two still pic - during an appeal: “ It is important Other sentences had disappoint - tures were shown on Television, that the criminal charge of genocide ed the Prosecution. Both the for - both showing the condemned be retained because there is no doubt mer Defence Minister, Sultan man before his execution. that what happened at Halabja in 16 Hashim al-Tai and the former march 1988 was an act of genocide. Secret Service chief, Aziz al-Duri At Halabja there feelings were This will help the victims to secure were sentenced to fifteen years mixed between satisfaction and compensation. The government (of imprisonment each, which the indifference to this execution, the day) claimed that Halabja was Public Prosecutors considered together with disappointment a military base, but in fact this insufficient. Thus, Goran Adham that the charge of genocide had action was a message to Iran, to also has appealed for stiffer sen - not been accepted. The day of show that the Iraqi leaders had no tences in their cases. the execution a commemoration pity, even towards their own sub - took place at the town cemetery, jects. It was an act of genocide ”. Hashim al-Tai was sentenced to where thousands of victims of death with Ali al-Majid in 2007 the 16 March were buried, The Attorney General, Goran for crimes committed during the including some unidentified Adham, stated that he and his Anfal campaign. However, at ones in mass graves. n° 298 • January 2010 Information and liaison bulletin • 3• “I am not happy about this exe - dict. What counted for us was the mayor, Khidr Karim cution since it will not change recognition of the genocide ”. Muhammad stated that he was anything for us”, explained optimistic about this question, Yahya Nawzar, a Halabja school - During the ceremony, in fact, thinking that the Supreme Court master. “ He could even have been banners were waved demanding would end up by deciding in executed without the Halabja ver - this recognition. The town’s their favour. SYRIA: THE KURDS ARE IN AN INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION mugglers landed 123 aged by the State in partnership with the fate and liberties of the refugees who said they the Red Cross ”. “undocumented” Kurds. S were Kurds from Syria on the Corsican coast. Quite apart from this purely Following this, the four political Immediately transport - French politico-legal controversy, leaders were arrested, although ed by the French authorities to the fate of these 123 Kurds has no direct link could be made several administrative detention briefly put the fate of the Kurds between the position they took centres without being allowed to in Syria, especially with regard to and their arrest. The four politi - apply for asylum within the legal the “undocumented” Kurds — cians arrested are: Hassan time limits, the refugees were that is, those arbitrarily stripped Ibrahim Saleh, born in 1947, finally released by the courts as of their Syrian nationality in the Mohamed Mustafa, born in 1962, the result of a heated controversy early 60s, who now number over Maruf Mulla Ahmed, born 1952. between the Minister of 300,000. All three are members of the Immigration, Eric Besson, and Yakiti Political Committee and the associations for the defence of Persecution of Kurds, whether live in Qamishlo. The fourth, refugees and the right of asylum, stateless or not, is undiminished Anwar Nassi, a political activist, like the CIMADE or the Forum in Syria and the pressure on was born in 1962 at Amude.
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