March 18, 2005

Dutch Supplier for Chemical Ali Indicted for Role in Halabja Massacre

Here is a slideshow from the Kurdistan Regional Government on the Halabja massacre. The link is on the right side. Very graphic.

Reuters from Wired:

A Dutch businessman accused of complicity in war crimes and genocide for selling chemicals to Iraq knew Saddam Hussein would use them for poison gas attacks, prosecutors said on Friday.

Frans van Anraat, 62, is charged with supplying thousands of tons of agents for poison gas that Saddam's military used in the 1980-1988 war against Iran and against its own Kurdish population, including an attack on the town of Halabja in 1988.

Prosecutor Fred Teeven told a pre-trial hearing at the high-security court in Rotterdam that Van Anraat continued to supply chemicals after the Halabja attack, which killed an estimated 5,000 people 17 years ago this week.

"Van Anraat was conscious of ... the fact that his materials were going to be used for poison gas attacks," he said.

"The damage and grief caused will not be rapidly, if ever, forgotten."...

Saddam and his feared cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali," face trial for war crimes, including the Halabja attack, at a special tribunal in Iraq.

U.N. weapons inspectors have called Van Anraat one of the most important middlemen who supplied Iraq with chemical agents.

The first Dutchman to be tried on genocide-related charges, Van Anraat, who sat silently in court, faces up to life in prison if convicted. The next hearing has been scheduled for June. His trial is expected to begin later this year.

Van Anraat was first detained in Milan in 1989 following a U.S. request but was released after two months. He then fled to Iraq, where it is thought he stayed until the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, when he returned to the Netherlands through Syria.

The AIVD Dutch secret service provided Van Anraat with a mobile phone and helped him find housing when he returned to the Netherlands in 2003 and assured him he would not face prosecution, his lawyers said.

He was arrested by Dutch officials at a house in Amsterdam in December as he was preparing to leave the country.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 11:54 AM | |