Barzani calls on the international community to prevent the production of chemical weapons

Shafaq News / The President of Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, issued a statement commemorating the 33rd anniversary of the chemical attack on Halabja.

"On this anniversary, we reiterate the need to unify positions among all components of Kurdistan, in loyalty to the blood and souls of the martyrs", Barzani said. 

He added, "We affirm the need to pay greater attention to Halabja and the families of the martyrs and the injured, and to be at the level of the sacrifices made by this governorate. We call on the federal government to assume its moral and legal duties to compensate the victims."

The President of the Kurdistan Region called on the international community to prevent chemical weapons and their production and eliminate "death technology", noting, "it is the duty of all countries to protect the lives of people, the environment and societies."

On March 16, Iraqi fighters flew over Halabja for five hours and dropped a mustard, sarin, and nerve gas mixture. The bombing left five thousand victims, most of whom were women and children.

 In January 2010, Ali Hassan Al-Majid, nicknamed "Ali al-Kimawi", President Saddam Hussein's cousin, was executed for his responsibility for this massacre.

 Moreover, in 2007, a Dutch businessman was sentenced in the Netherlands to 17 years in prison for complicity in committing war crimes and handing over chemical materials to Baghdad in the 1980s, knowing that they would be used to produce chemical weapons.

 The chemical attack on Halabja occurred in the final days of the Iran-Iraq war.