Decades after Halabja chemical attack, fate of 400 Iraqi children remains unclear
Shafaq News/More than three decades after the chemical attack on Halabja, the fate of some400 Iraqi children remains unknown. These children, transferred to Iranianhospitals for treatment following the 1988 attack by Iraq’s former regime, haveyet to return home, caught between conflicting circumstances that range fromtheir parents’ deaths during the attack to adoption by Iranian families.
Haji Awat, asurvivor of the attack, recounted to Al-Hurra how he lost his younger brotherwhile fleeing to Iran.
"Afterthe bombing, we sought refuge in an underground shelter to escape theairstrikes, but a strange smell, like apples, filled the air, forcing us toabandon the shelter and flee to the mountains bordering Iran," Awat said.
Duringtreatment at an Iranian hospital, he was separated from his mother and sisters,later discovering that his four-year-old brother had gone missing.
LuqmanAbdulqadir, head of the Halabja Chemical Attack Victims Association, said theorganization has registered 119 missing children, though further inquiriesrevealed a total of around 400 children displaced by the attack. Abdulqadiremphasized that despite repeated appeals to the Iraqi government and Iranianauthorities, official investigations have seen little progress.
Human rightsactivist Bakhan Fateh criticized the efforts to locate these missing children,noting that many Iranian families are willing to reunite the children withtheir biological families, but legal complexities slow the process.
She calledon the Iraqi government to intensify efforts and simplify repatriationprocedures, highlighting the importance of DNA testing to verify family identities.
In a recentinitiative, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) formed a specializedcommittee to pursue the cases of missing children in collaboration with Iranianauthorities.
Abdullah Mahmood Mohammad, the KRG Minister of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs announced on Wednesdaythe creation of a council dedicated to uncovering the fate of children who losttheir parents during the chemical attack by the former Iraqi regime in the late1980s and have since remained in Iran.
"Asmany families in Halabja and its surroundings fell victim to the bombing, someyoung children were taken to hospitals in the Islamic Republic of Iran, wherethey have remained," Mohammad said in a press conference. " Many ofthese children’s fates remain unknown, so we formed this council with theCabinet’s approval after long discussions."
“The councilincludes relevant ministries and government departments in the Region,” Mohammad acknowledged the challenge, given the lack of records concerning thesechildren, affirming that progress, though challenging, was underway.
On March 16,1988, Iraqi fighter jets bombarded Halabja for five hours, deploying a mix ofmustard gas, sarin, and nerve agents, leaving 5,000 dead, mostly women andchildren, and thousands more injured.
In January2010, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" and cousin tothen-President Saddam Hussein, was sentenced to death and executed for his rolein the massacre.
The attack,known as genocide, was the largest chemical strike against a civilianpopulation of a single ethnic group, targeting Kurds with the intent topunish—a characteristic that aligns with the international definition ofgenocide, which requires intent to harm a specific group based on ethnicity.The assault took place during the closing days of the Iran-Iraq War, which hadspanned eight years.
