IN MEMORY OF THE AL-ANFAL CAMPAIGN (CHEMICAL ALI EXECUTED ON 25 JANUARY 2010)

On this date (25 January 2010), Ali Hassan al-Majid A.K.A Chemical Ali was executed by hanging in Iraq. Let us not forget the victims and survivors of the Al-Anfal Campaign who died in the Halabja genocide, let us hear from them:

Kurds celebrate in a street in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, 24 June, 2007.

QUOTE 1: “I want him to be executed here in the place where he committed the worst crime for the sake of the victims.”

AUTHOR: A Kurdish man referring to the death sentence of Chemical Ali on 24 June 2007. 

QUOTE 2: "I am glad to see Chemical Ali hanged at last and I am psychologically relieved to see the person who killed thousands of my people being punished at last."

AUTHOR: Aras Abdi lost 12 relatives in the Halabja attack. 

Freshta Raper

QUOTE 3: Freshta Raper lost 20 members of her family during the Anfal campaign.

She is among those who have welcomed the verdict.

"For the people of Kurdistan this is a day of justice," she said. "We've waited close to 20 years now to see Chemical Ali or Ali Hassan al-Majid and his cohorts brought to justice. So for us really it's very important that there is a day of justice, and a day of reckoning finally for the 100s of thousands of victims of genocide."

AUTHOR: Freshta Raper is an Iraq Kurd from Halabja who now lives in London. 

QUOTE 4: Another Halabja resident, Kamil Mahmoud, said he still has trouble breathing as a result of the attack.

"I was afraid that I would die without seeing Chemical Ali punished for his crimes," said Mahmoud, who lost eight family members to the gas. "But thanks to God, the time has come for Ali to see his shameful end."

AUTHOR: Kamil Mahmoud lost eight family members to the gas in Halabaja.

QUOTE 5: Behnam Karim, another local, said, "As a Kurdish citizen I am very happy because of the decision. But I wish the decision can define Halabja's crime as a genocide."

Hundreds of Kurds danced in the streets last June when al-Majid was sentenced to death.

But on Friday in Halabja, a city near the Iranian border that was the scene of a notorious gas attack that killed an estimated 5,000 civilians, news that al-Majid's sentence is to be carried out was greeted with relief but not joy.

AUTHOR: Behnam Karim is a family member of Kurdish war victims.

QUOTE 6: The verdict for Chemical Ali’s execution was issued earlier in the month, prompting jubilation in Halabja, where people were seen cheering and playing music on the streets.

"I have heard the news of the execution [of] the criminals whose hands [are] stained with blood. This is a happy day for the Kurdish people," Reuters quoted Iraqi Kurd Saman Faruq as saying.

AUTHOR: Saman Faruq is a family member of a Kurdish victim.