[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 43 (Thursday, March 13, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E391]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      20TH ANNIVERSARY OF SADDAM HUSSEIN'S ATTACK ON HALABJA, IRAQ

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                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 13, 2008

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call the attention of the 
House to the 20th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's attack on the city of 
Halabja with chemical and biological weapons. On March 16, 1988, these 
weapons killed some 5,000 Kurdish men, women and children, as part of 
Hussein's Al-Anfal campaign to kill and displace the Kurdish population 
in northern Iraq.
  According to a comprehensive study by Human Rights Watch, the 1988 
Al-Anfal campaign consisted of approximately 40 gas attacks and 
resulted in the deaths of at least 50,000 and perhaps as many as 
100,000 Iraqi Kurds. The worst in this series of attacks was on 
Halabja.
  The attack in 1988 has left behind a cruel and persistent legacy on 
the village of Halabja, where inhabitants experience a high instance of 
life threatening medical conditions due to the persistence of noxious 
poisons in the food and water supply. I ask that our colleagues 
remember this day, which exemplifies the legacy of brutality and human 
rights abuses that characterized the regime of the late Saddam Hussein.

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