Iraq: Human Rights and
Chemical Weapons Use
Kurds of Iraq
• Kurds are a stateless
people scattered over
Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and
Iran
• Kurds make up more
than 4 million of Iraq’s
population of 18 million
History of Kurds
• Were promised a state of their own in 1922,
but Turkey refused to ratify the Treaty of
Sevres and the idea was dropped.
– This same pact would have required prosecution
of Turks for their atrocities against the Armenians
• Iraqi Kurds staged frequent rebellions in hopes
of governing themselves
History of the Kurds
• In 1970, Iraq offered the Kurds self-rule in a
Kurdistan Autonomous Region that covered
half of the territory that the Kurds considered
theirs.
• It excluded Kurdish-populated oil-rich
provinces.
• Kurds reject the offer
History of the Kurds
• Saddam Hussein, imposed the plan
unilaterally in 1974
– Kurds thought they would get support from the
United States, Iran, and Israel
• U.S. was concerned with Iraq’s friendship with the
Soviet Union
• Iran and Iraq were in a dispute over their border
– Kurds revolt under their leader, Mullah Mustafa
Barzani
History of the Kurds
• 1975, Algiers agreement temporarily settles
border dispute between Iraq and Iran
– Iraq agrees to recognize the Iranian border
– Iran and U.S. withdraw their support for the Kurds
• Without the support of Iran and U.S., Kurd
revolt collapses
• Kurds were treated by Saddam Hussein as
traitors for aligning with the enemy
History of the Kurds
• Saddam ordered the 4,000 sq mi. of Kurdish
territory in northern Iraq, Arabized
– Imported large Arab communities (Kurds were
Muslim)
– Required Kurds to leave any area he considered
strategically valuable
• Many were deported to the southern border
within 2 months
• Some sources say 200,000 others say as nearly ½
a million.
Two Leaders
Ayatollah Khomeini
Saddam Heusein
Iran-Iraq War
• In 1980, Iraq turned its back on the Algiers
agreement that had settled the border dispute
with Iran five years earlier
• Iraq claimed the entire Shatt al-Arab waterway
– Saddam wanted to demonstrate to the new
regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini that it was the
regional strongman
• U.S. did not want oil reserves to fall into the
hands of Khomeini, a radical Islamist
Iran-Iraq War
Iran-Iraq War
• U.S. ends up aligned with a genocidal regime,
Iran
– Provides Iraq with $210 million in ag credits to buy
U.S. grain
– Would soon climb to $500 million a year
• U.S. removes Iraq from its list of countries
sponsoring terrorists
• 1984- U.S. and Iran restore diplomatic
relations
Iran-Iraq War
• U.S. knew of Hussein’s reliance on torture and
executions, but U.S. could not allow Iran to
defeat him.
• As Iraq gained favor with U.S., the Kurds
continued to lose favor with Iraq
• More resettlements took place
• Both major Kurdish political parties opted to
team with Iran
• Met with horrible consequences
Iran-Iraq War
• Americans had sort of written off the region
and did not even complain when Hussein
acquired between 2,000 and 4,000 tons of
chemical weapons and experimented on the
Iranians.
• Iraq used chemical weapons about 195 times
between 1983 and 1988, killing or wounding
some 50,000 people, many of them civilians
Iran-Iraq War
• The most the international community
mustered was a 1987 UN Security Council
Resolution that generally “deplored” chemical
weapons use
• Once the Iraqi dictator, Hussein, knew he
would not be sanctioned for using these
weapons against Iran, he knew he was on to
something.
Iran-Iraq War
• Hussein did become alarmed with press reports
about American backroom arms deals with Iran
• Let Peter Galbraith, a journalist?, come along
on a 8 day fact finding trip in Sept. 1987
• Kurdish village after Kurdish village had been
destroyed
• In his report, Galbraith recommended the U.S.
pursue economic sanctions against Iran and work
through the United Nations to bring war to a close
Iran-Iraq War
• Larry Pope, State Department office director
for Iran and Iraq said U.S. knew something
dreadful was going on.
– Knew Kurdish villages were being razed
– U.S. thought these actions were temporary
– Surely they would not waste precious resources
destroying their own population when they were
trying to win a war with Iran
Iran-Iraq War
• Having seen how effective chemical weapons
could be against his external foe, Hussein
turned them now on his chief internal enemy,
the Kurds
• In May 1987, Iraq became the first country ever to
attack its own citizens with chemical weapons.
• September 1987, New York Times notes that
Iraq had dynamited some 500 villages in the
past 6 months
Iran-Iraq War
• The American response to Iraqi chemical
weapons’ use against Iran, early reports of use
against the Kurds, and ongoing Iraqi
bulldozing of Kurdish villages was extremely
tame.
Iraq-Iran War
• In March 1988 Iraqi forces gassed the Kurdish
town of Halabja
– Halabja, a border town, was just seven miles east
of a strategically vital source of water for Baghdad
– Kurdish-Iranian soldiers replaced the Iraqis
overnight
– March 16, Iraq counterattacks with deadly gasses
– Halabja became known as the Kurdish Hiroshima
– 5,000 Kurds were killed immediately and
thousands more injured
Iran-Iraq War
• Iraq justified its attacks against the Kurds on
the grounds that it had to destroy the Kurdish
saboteurs who with Iran.
– Those who worked with Iran had obtained gas
masks
– It was unarmed Kurdish civilians who were left
helpless
Iran-Iraq War
• Halabja was the deadliest single gas attack on
Kurds
– Was one of at least 40 other chemical assaults
ordered by al-Majid
Iran-Iraq War
U.S. Skepticism
• The gassing reports were met with U.S.
skepticism
– Americans distrusted Iranian sources
• Used words like “allegations of gassing”
– Iraq denies reports of fighting in the area
– Some Kurds had taken up arms with the Iranians
so was viewed by American sources as a part of
war. They were lumped with the forces
responsible for taking U.S. hostages
Iran-Iraq War
U.S. Skepticism
• Since Halabja was only 15 miles from inside
Iraq, Western reporters were able to witness
with their own eyes
– Iran was eager to provide evidence of war crimes
against Iraq
– Iraq led their own tours and denied the atrocities
• U.S. official position was to confined to
criticize weapons used
– “this is a reminder to all countries why chemical
warfare should be banned
Iran-Iraq War
U.S. Skepticism
• U.S. issued no threats or demands
• Claimed the proof of Iraqi responsibility was
inconclusive
• At UN security council, US blocked an Iranian
attempt to raise question of responsibility for
attack
• The story of Halabja died down as quickly as it
sprang up and the State Department
maintained full support for Iraq
Iran-Iraq War
Mass Executions
• Most Kurds who died in the Anfal were killed
in mass executions
• Senior Reagan administration officials made it
plain that the fate of the Kurds was not their
concern
• Several Kurds survived Iraqi firing squads and
later came forward to describe the horror
Iran-Iraq War
• U.S. and European policymakers had long
refused to meet officially with the Iraqi
Kurdish leaders for fear of irritating Saddam
Hussein
– Jalal Talabani, one leader of the Iraqi Kurds’ two
main political parties, traveled to Washington, D.C.
in June 1988 to gain an audience with the West.
Iran-Iraq War
• Larry Pope, the State Department’s Iran-Iraq
office director, agreed to met with Talabani at
the State Department
– This meant ignoring the ordinance that all contact
with the Kurds was to occur off U.S. government
property
• First outrage came not from Iran, but from
Turkish President, Kenan Evren
Iran-Iraq War
• Iraqis also upset
– U.S. calmed their fears and sent the message that
our relations with Iraq and Turkey were more
important than what Hussein was doing to the
Kurds.
• In late June and July the Iraqis staged chemical
weapons attacks throughout Kurdish territory
Iran-Iraq War
• In 1987-1988, U.S. concentrated on securing
an arms embargo against Iran
• Gave assistance to Iraq, but did not sell them
weapons
– Provided them with intelligence gathered from
AWACS early-warning aircraft
– Gave damage estimates on Iraqi attacks
– Reported Iranian troop movements
• Iran saw a decrease in number of enlistments
Iran-Iraq War
• Khomeini agrees to a cease fire in July 1988
– More than 1 million soldiers and civilians on both
sides died in the war
– Not an inch of land changed hands
• Aug. 20, 1988, Iran and Iraq signed an
armistice
• Aug. 25, 1988, Iraq launched a new attack on
Kurdish villages
– U.S. officials finally had to take notice
Final Offensive Against the Kurds
• The final offensive against the Kurds was
widely known
– New York Times ran a long front page story on
Sept. 1, 1988
• 65,000 Kurdish victims and survivors go to
Turkey
Final Offensive Against The Kurds
• U.S officials were reluctant to criticize Iraq and
too refuge in the absence of perfect
information.
– Said reports from Turkish border were not
unanimous.
• The Regan administration’s endless search for
“evidence” provided a familiar fig leaf for
inaction.
Aftermath
• U.S. calls on the UN to send in a team of
experts to Iraq to investigate.
– Prior investigations had concluded in 1986, 1987,
and 1988 that Iraq had used chemical weapons
against Iran
• By 1989 only a few hundred villages remained
standing I Hussein’s “Kurdish autonomous
region.
– 4,049 villages had been destroyed
Aftermath
• George Bush Sr. takes over White House in
Jan. 1989
– Iraq became the 9th largest purchaser of U.S. farm
goods
• 12 Western states join together at the UN
Human Rights Commission and sponsor a
resolution to make a through study of the
human rights situation in Iraq.
– U.S. refuses to join
Aftermath
• Oct. 2, 1989, a year after Kurds tumble into
Turkey fleeing gas attacks, President Bush
signs National Security Directive 26 (NSD-26)
that says “normal relations between the U.S.
and Iraq would serve our long-term interests
and promote stability in the Gulf and Middle
East.”
Aftermath
• April 2, 1990- Sadaam Hussein confims Iraq
possesses chemical weapons
– Also gives his burn Israel speech
– “By God, we will make fire eat up half of Israel” if
Israel attacks Iraq
• A week after the sanctions bill clears the
Senate, Iraq invaded Kuwait.
– U.S. bombing of Baghdad begins Jan. 17, 1991
Aftermath
• Feb. 15, 1991 President Bush gives a speech.
“There is another way for the bloodshed to
stop, and that is for the Iraqi military and Iraqi
people to take matters into their own hands
and force Saddam Hussein to step aside.
– Feb. 27, 1991 Bush declares a cease fire
– 100 hours after ground war begins
• Kurds rise up in the north on March 6th
Aftermath
• Kurds banked on U.S. military support and
overestimated the damage already inflicted on
the Iraqi military by the allied attack.
• Could turn into public relations disaster for
U.S.
• April 16, 1991, U.S. launches Operation
Provide Comfort
– Carves out a safe haven for Kurds in northern Iraq
Justice
• Today Kurdish women survivors cling to
rumors that their husbands remain alive in
secret jails in the desert
• 70,000 Kurds have returned to Halabja where
massive gas attacks took place
• Survivors remain blinded from burns
• Miscarriages and birth defects such as cleft
palates are common
Justice
• High rate of lymphomas and leukemia
– No radiation or chemotherapy is available
• In their failed revolt against Baghdad in 1991
Kurds stormed secret police buildings and
recovered documents
– Were not thinking of prosecuting officials just
obtaining names of informants
• Records were transferred to National Archives
in Washington, D.C.
Justice
• Human Rights Watch was granted exclusive
access to the documents
– In 1992 and 1993 they interviewed 350 survivors
– Physicians for Human Rights exhumed mass
graves and gathered forensic material
• Was the kind of study a U.S. government
determined to stop atrocities might have
attempted while the crimes were underway
Justice
• Human Rights Watch found between 50,000
and 100,000 Kurds (most children and
children) were executed or disappeared
between Feb. and Sept. 1998 alone.
• The confiscated Iraqi government records
explicitly recorded the Iraqi aims to wipe out
rural Kurdish life
Justice
• Having documented the genocide, Human
Rights Watch assigned lawyer Richard Dicker
to draw up a legal case in spring 1994.
– His role was to prepare a tight case and persuade
a state to take it on.
– If a genocide case were filed, the International
Court of Justice could recommend that Iraqi assets
be seized and that perpetrators be punished at
home, abroad, or in some international court.
Justice
• In July 1995, Secretary of State Warren
Christopher signed a communique that found
Iraq had committed genocide against Iraq’s
Kurds and endorsed Human Rights Watch’s
efforts to file a case against Iraq.
– To this day, no Iraqi soldier or political leader has
been punished for atrocities committed against
the Kurds.