[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 33 (Thursday, March 17, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E476]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IN MEMORY OF THE KURDISH VICTIMS OF MARCH 16, 1988

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 16, 2005

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in 
remembering the horrible events that took place in Halabja, Iraq, on 
March 16, 1988. Today is the 17th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's 
chemical weapons attack on his own people during a battle waged between 
a Kurdish force resisting Saddam's oppression and Saddam's Iraqi army. 
This attack was part of Saddam's systematic genocidal attack on the 
Kurds known as the Anfal campaign.
  In seeking to subdue Kurdish resistance, Saddam Hussein used chemical 
weapons indiscriminately against Kurdish fighters and civilians alike. 
The attack on Halabja was one of some forty chemical assaults staged by 
Hussein against the Kurdish people. In fact, the Kurds of Halabja and 
neighboring towns constitute the largest civilian population ever 
exposed to chemical weapons, including sarin, VX, tabun, and mustard 
gas. As a result of the extensive and devastatingly cruel Anfal 
campaign, hundreds of Kurdish villages were totally destroyed and as 
many as 200,000 Kurds were killed.
  The tragedy of Halabja should yield lessons for those concerned about 
responding to future chemical and biological emergencies. The world 
stood by as innocent men, women, and children suffered and died at the 
hands of a barbarous regime, and, for 14 long years, the Saddam Hussein 
dictatorship went unpunished for the murder of hundreds of thousands of 
innocent Iraqis, the use of banned chemical weapons against Iraqi 
Kurds, and innumerable other human rights violations. During those 14 
years, the number of his victims, Kurdish and non-Kurdish, increased 
dramatically, as the discovery of mass graves testifies.
  Mr. Speaker, now history has avenged Saddam's victims, however 
belatedly and inadequately, and soon Saddam Hussein will face the 
consequences of his war crimes. I ask that my colleagues join me in 
speaking out against oppression and against the use of chemical and 
biological weapons. That is now the best way to commemorate the 
suffering of the people of Halabja and all the victims of Saddam's 
inhuman Anfal campaign and of his subsequent depredations.

                          ____________________