[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 44 (Friday, March 14, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E423-E424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GAS ATTACK OF THE KURDS OF HALABJA

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                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 14, 2008

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to solemnly remember the 
20th anniversary of a terrible crime committed against the Kurdish 
people, the gassing of the inhabitants of the city of Halabja on March 
16, 1988. This attack on men, women, and children was a crime against 
humanity. On that day, Iraqi planes dropped chemical munitions, 
including mustard gas and nerve gas; the planes concentrated their 
attack on the city as well as the roads leading out of the town. More 
than 5,000 people were killed and another 10,000 were injured. Twenty 
years later, the survivors of this attack are still suffering from the 
effects of that horrendous onslaught.
  As a staffer with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time, 
I had the opportunity to travel to the region after this attack, in 
September 1988, and observed fIrst hand the effects of that terrible 
campaign against the Kurds. With my colleague, Peter Galbraith, I 
interviewed Kurdish survivors of other chemical attacks that followed. 
We had the sad but important task of documenting chemical attacks on 49 
Kurdish villages. These attacks were part of a year-long brutal 
campaign that resulted in the deaths and disappearances of 
approximately 180,000 Iraqi Kurds.
  Because of these brutal attacks against the Kurds, the Senate passed 
stiff economic sanctions against the Saddam Hussein regime at the time, 
but the Reagan Administration defeated this effort and failed to 
penalize this regime with any meaningful measures. That failure sent a 
terrible signal to Saddam Hussein, and he may have concluded that he 
could subsequently attack Kuwait with impunity. After the Persian Gulf 
war of 1991, the United States imposed a no-fly zone over the Kurdish 
region of Iraq, which helped the inhabitants of that area to begin to 
restore their shattered lives.
  Today, the Iraqi Kurdistan region is one of the most stable and 
peaceful regions of Iraq, and its brave people are trying to 
concentrate on political and economic development. As we try to assist 
these people we should also be mindful of what they have lived through 
and the loved ones they have lost. We must never

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forget the crime against the inhabitants of Halabja and other Kurdish 
towns and villages.

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