BAGHDAD, 9 January 2007 — Saddam Hussein and his cousin Ali Hassan Al-Majid discussed how chemical weapons would exterminate thousands before unleashing them on Kurds in 1988, according to tapes played yesterday in a trial of former Iraqi officials.
“I will strike them with chemical weapons and kill them all,” a voice identified by prosecutors as that of Ali Hassan, or “Chemical Ali”, is heard saying.
“Who is going to say anything? The international community? Curse the international community,” the voice continued.
“Yes, it’s effective, especially on those who don’t wear a mask immediately, as we understand,” a voice identified as Saddam’s is heard saying on another tape.
“Sir, does it exterminate thousands?” a voice asks back. “Yes, it exterminates thousands and forces them not to eat or drink and they will have to evacuate their homes without taking anything with them, until we can finally purge them,” the voice identified as that of Saddam answers.
With Saddam’s chair empty, nine days after he was hanged, Ali Hassan and five other Baath party officials were being tried for their roles in the 1988 Anfal military campaign in northern Kurdistan. Prosecutors said 180,000 people were killed, many of them gassed. Many Kurds regret the chief suspect can no longer face justice for his role in the campaign against them, but they hope others share his fate on the gallows.
Saddam was hanged Dec. 30 after being convicted in an earlier trial for his role in killing 148 Shiites in the 1980s.
Ali Hassan, who faces charges of genocide, is considered the main enforcer of the Anfal campaign. Defendants have said Anfal was a legitimate military operation targeting Kurdish guerrillas who had sided with Shiite Iran during the last stages of the Iraq-Iran war.
Judge Mohammed Al-Ureybi formally dropped charges of genocide and crimes against humanity against Saddam.
The other defendants in the case are former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Al-Tai, who was the commander of Task Force Anfal and head of the Iraqi Army 1st Corps; Sabir Al-Douri, Saddam’s military intelligence chief; Taher Tawfiq Al-Ani, former governor of Mosul and head of the Northern Affairs Committee; Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces; and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence’s eastern regional office.
