Halabja, Iraq – Hundreds of Kurds danced in the streets Sunday, celebrating the news that Saddam Hussein’s notorious cousin, “Chemical Ali” Hassan al-Majid, and two other regime officials had been sentenced to hang for massacring up to 180,000 Kurds in a brutal crackdown two decades ago.
Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the 1987-88 crackdown, known as Operation Anfal. A sixth defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence. Death sentences are automatically appealed.
The verdicts were handed down at the end of a trial that began last Aug. 21. Witnesses testified that Iraqi government forces indiscriminately attacked women and children, burned crops, killed livestock and rounded up civilians into detention camps in a campaign to exterminate the restive Kurdish minority.
“Now, I bring my family good news that Chemical Ali is to be hanged for killing them, thus their spirits will rest in peace,” said Kamal Hawramani, 37.
For many Kurds, the joy over the verdicts was tempered by the fact that the main defendant – Hussein – had gone to the gallows before the Anfal trial was completed. The ousted president was hanged Dec. 30 for his role in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims in Dujayl.
The defendants insisted they were defending the nation against Kurdish guerrillas who had sided with Iran during the bloody eight-year war.
Also sentenced to death were Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, the former defense minister who led the Iraqi delegation at the cease-fire talks that ended the 1991 Gulf War, and Hussein Rashid Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi armed forces.
