Halabja chemical attacks in 1988: regime suppliers on trial in Iraqi Kurdistan

A man lays flowers at the grave of a victim killed in a 1988 chemical attack in Halabja, northern Iraq, Sunday, January 17, 2010 (Illustration image). © YAHYA AHMED / ASSOCIATED PRESS

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1 min

In Iraqi Kurdistan, 4,800 victims of Saddam Hussein's regime's chemical attacks in 1988 are seeking compensation from eight European companies, including two French women and three billionaires. They are accused of having provided Saddam Hussein's regime with the means to build chemical weapons for the Anfal operations that killed 180,000 Kurds during the war between Iran and Iraq.

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With our correspondent in Kurdistan, Théo Renaudon

Thousands of those injured in these attacks still need treatment and expect much from this trial. "What we are asking for is justice. Who supplied these chemical weapons? And why? And how? The wounded need treatment, a doctor before they die. I hope that they will finally be entitled to medical and financial support. This is what we need," said Luqman Abdelkader Mohammed, president of the Victims' Association.

But none of the eight companies targeted has sent a representative since the trial began four years ago. The victims' chief lawyer, Gavriel Berone, explains that "their intention is to delegitimize the work of the court by not being present. They say we have no legitimacy and that is all.

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The American lawyer, who promises to have gathered thousands of pieces of evidence, is still counting on a conviction from the Iraqi Kurdish court. "In international law, the judgment of any country must be respected by all justices in the world," adds Gavriel Berone.

But this principle is relativized by several observers. The support of the federal government in Baghdad for a court decision by a Kurdish court could be decisive.

► Also listen: Great Report - Saddam's chemical bombs, a wound still open for the Kurds of Iraq

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Read on on the same topics:

  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Kurds