Saddam Hussein – The Ultimate WMD

The full extent of Saddam Hussein’s terror on Iraq and in particular towards the Kurds was demonstrated once again near the ancient town of Hatra in northern Iraq. The mass grave was discovered many months ago, but was exhumed recently to determine the last minutes of an estimated 300 men, women and children before they were executed and later buried in numerous trenches. As other trenches are excavated in the area, they may find thousands more buried beneath the sandy wadis of Hatra. Forensic experts hope that evidence gathered from the exhumed bodies at the temporary morgue will provide solid evidence that Saddam committed mass murder.

Hatra is only a small brick in a massive construction of genocide, aggression and terror committed by Saddam. Perhaps the greatest irony is that at the time of writing, debate rages in London and Washington about the motives for the liberation of Iraq and the failure to discover any “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD): The world forgets about the father of WMDs - Saddam Hussein himself.

Since the fall of his regime, the discovery of mass graves has been commonplace in the marshlands of southern Iraq, the fields and mountains of northern Iraq and in the deserts of western Iraq. Just about every corner of his former realm has witnessed the unearthing of mass graves.

It is important that we have captured the chief slayer and discovered the debris of his terror. Finding chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons to some extent is irrelevant.

The lack of evidence for these weapons in Iraq is overshadowed by the proven and undeniable use of them in Halabja (March 1988), where Mustard and Sarin gas were used to systematically wipe out a whole village while leaving a legacy of trauma and suffering in the minds of all Kurds that will never be forgotten.

The Unearthing of Hatra

Al-Anfal (or “The Spoils”) was the name given to a massive genocide campaign by the former Iraqi regime between 1987 and 1988 to wipe out Kurdish resistance once and for all. This campaign, spear-headed by Saddam’s now infamous cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, more commonly known as “Chemical Ali”, ripped through the heart of Kurdish society and killed an estimated 182,000 innocent Kurdish civilians. In this period, thousands of men and boys deemed able to fight, were rounded-up and then seemingly vanished without a trace. Only now, after the fall of the deposed dictator, have we begun to reveal where they went.

Greg Kehoe, a lawyer and a war-crimes expert working with the Iraqi Special Tribunal Team of archaeologists and anthropologists, has been charged with investigating graves on a plain near Lake Dokan in Suleiynmania. The position of the graves at the bottom of a valley, which is susceptible to seasonal flooding, has meant the bodies have been partially preserved. However palpable the massacres may seem as a result, it will never compare to the acute sorrow and hurt felt by thousands of grieving families.

The bodies of the hapless victims were separated into two trenches, possibly because the atrocities were committed on separate occasions. The women were killed with pistol wounds to the head and the children to the face. The men were blindfolded before being tied together and gunned down by semi-automatic fire.

The identity of these victims was never in doubt: the bullet-holed traditional baggy Kurdish trousers are testimony to this. The bodies were then bulldozed, probably as some of the victims were fighting for their last breaths. A woman, shot in the head, was discovered clutching a baby, while a child was found holding a football in his diminutive grasp. It is unlikely the women and children knew about their ultimate fate as most of them were prepared for long journeys ahead and were carrying pots, pans and other tools. Jessica Mondero, a US expert examining the graves, explained, "Lots of children's clothing, medication, beads, money, change purses were layered within the clothing”.

It became clear as the graves were excavated that some women were pregnant at the time of death. Fetus bones were found among the corpses, described by US anthropologist P Willey as "Tiny bones, femurs, thighbones the size of matchsticks”.

It is intended that the evidence gathered by this team will be used to try Saddam for crimes against humanity along with other senior Ba’athists figures at an undetermined date next year. Mr. Kehoe, briefing the media, was certain this was an act of genocide.

"This does not take place systematically without somebody giving the command on top. That's why I'm confident that this was a killing field," said Mr Kehoe.

The issue - with all respect to Mr. Kehoe - is not if genocide ever took place against the Kurds or if the site of Hatra is a “killing field”. It is a wider issue of uncovering a bloodied landscape across the Kurdish plains and providing long overdue justice using evidence that all but the Kurds have ignored for decades.

Talk of unearthing evidence against Saddam to bolster charges of genocide is an insult to the thousands of Kurdish people that perished. No amount of charges against Saddam will ever matter to these people. They have lost loved ones and yet sadly this is at a time when the reasoning for ousting Saddam is causing heated dialogue in some Western countries. If only those who doubt the war and demonstrate against their respective governments could see these bodies with their own eyes, or speak to the people who have lost loved ones. The full extent of Saddam’s brutality is evident and people should wonder how he lived through decades of terror without any international intervention.

Halabja and Ba’athist Campaign of Obliteration

The Kurds have proved a thorn in the Arab dominated Iraqi political and nationalistic landscape since the first days of Iraq’s creation. As a nation too distinct to assimilate into Arabic society and too proud to lose their millennia old heritage, the Kurds have faced persecution and “Arabisation” even before Saddam assumed the presidency. For the Kurds it is simple, they never asked to be a part of the British formed Iraq.

The Kurds are a distinct nation with their own language, culture and history. As a result, this has created wide suspicion among successive regimes that exists even today. If the new Iraq does not comprehend the distinctive identity and aspiration of the Kurdish people, the trend of terror and discrimination will continue. Comments by Iraqi interim President, Ghazi al-Yawar, that a referendum in Kurdistan will be viewed as an act of treason by the Kurds, is simply a prelude to greater troubles in the future and a sign that perhaps a multi-ethnic Iraq will always remain a dream.

The use of terror against the Kurds has included many methods to dishearten them and to eliminate the Kurdish “threat”, often with the West turning a blind eye ostensibly for their own strategic and economical gains. During the years of the Iran-Iraq war, Kurds siding with Iran were systematically repressed with the use of anything from hangings and beatings to chemical agents.

On March 16, 1988, Halabja, a town close to the Iranian border was gassed in retaliation for the Kurdish support of Iran during the war. An estimated 5,000 people were killed and thousands more injured on that day, with long-lasting emotional and physical side-affects for many years later.

The residue from the gassing has caused birth defects, genetic mutation and mental scarring for generations. Proof of Saddam's brutality is shown in pictures of innocent women and children lying dead in the same place they were gassed while going about their normal lives. It is shown in the pictures of fathers holding their sons in the desperate last few minutes before they succumbed to the chemical effects on their bodies. Cries for help were not heard beyond the lonely plains of Kurdistan.

Long has the suffering and misfortune of the Kurds been ignored and this can no longer continue. The wrongs of the past can be corrected, if the international community understands the atrocities and misgivings of the past and works to seek a solution to many problems sown by the former Iraqi regime.

Kirkuk is the prime example of this. A census in the 1950s showed that the majority of the population of Kirkuk were Kurdish. However, a brutal “Arabisation” campaign by Saddam left thousands of Kurds homeless and forced to settle elsewhere. The Kurdish people, long fearful of Saddam, now want to return to their homes - the same homes where they and their forefathers grew up. However, a return home has caused problems for Iraq’s neighbours and has served to only increase hostilities in the multi-ethnic districts of Kirkuk. The Kurdish people are becoming restless, bewildered as to why returning to home is becoming a regional dispute.

Hypocrisy is rife in the Middle East but none more so than with Kurdistan. Kurds are displaced and affronted by the thousands and yet a blind eye is turned when they aspire to return to their rightful homes.

Conclusion

The Kurd’s are the fourth largest nationality in the Middle East but find themselves without a state and a history tainted with a legacy of denial and persecution. If evidence of the destructive nature of Saddam was ever needed, then look no further than the destruction of thousands of villages. To question the overthrow of Saddam is like questioning the murder of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Those who choose to ignore the murders only choose to ignore the truth.

For many Iraqis and particularly Kurds, it is never too late to correct the wrongs of the past. The international community must begin to appreciate and comprehend the full extent of suffering under Saddam’s rule and start to rectify the mistakes of the past. It is unlikely that Hatra is the last mass grave to be discovered in Iraq, but the lessons learnt from Saddam’s rule can ensure that such mass suffering never happens again.