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Re: question re halabja and the UN Security Council
- From: John Smith <johncsmith@DELETETHISbtinternet.com>
- Subject: Re: question re halabja and the UN Security Council
- Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 21:29:13 +0000
Re: Halabja
Richard Byrne's question concerning the UN Security Council's lack of response
to the poison gassing of Halabja is an important one, considering how prominently
Halabja has figured in the imperialists' war propaganda since 1990. The
utter cynicism, nauseating hypocrisy, and infinite evil of the governments
of London and Washington is highlighted by their defence and protection of
Saddam when he committed this atrocity.
The despicable nature of our so-called "free press" is also brought into
sharp relief. If journalists and interviewers had given due attention to
their predecessors' complicity in this attack, Cook, Blair et al. would not
have been able to so freely use Halabja to manipulate public opinion.
I haven't got any references to UN Security Council shenanigans concerning
Halabja. The story in my mind was that the US prevented discussion on the
Security Council, not that they vetoed a resolution condemning Iraq.
Andrew & Patrick Cockburn, in "Out of the Ashes - the Resurrection of Saddam Hussein", have some interesting things to say:
"Prior to the invasion of Kuwait... Saddam's murderous regime evoked few
complaints in the outside world. Even when he took to gassing his Kurdish
subjects, governments in Washington, London, and other western capitals stayed
mute, grateful that he was fighting the Islamic Republic of Iran. A strictly
enforced rule... forbade any U.S. government official from meeting with any
of the exiled Iraqi opposition groups." (p12)
"...the March 1988 gassing of five thousand Kurds in the city of Halabja
in a single afternoon was greeted by a thunderous silence from Western governments..." (p49)
"... when Iraqi warplanes showered sarin, tabun and mustard gas on the inhabitants
of Halabja in March 1988, the world's governments stayed mute. No one, including
the government of Sweden, wished to discommode Saddam Hussein, the hammer
of the ayatollahs. [Rolf] Ekeus [attending a UN Conference on Disarmemament
in Geneva] found this outrageous and informed his foreign minister that,
whatever the policy, he was going to make a speech to the conference denuncing
this barbarism - which he duly did. He was the only official representative
of any government in the world, apart from the Iranians, to do so." (p97)
Saïd K Aburish, in "A Brutal Friendship - The West and the Arab Elite", says
"During the Iran-Iraq war the Iraqi use of chemical weapons against the town
of Halabja and the ensuing death of five thousand Kurds found the United
States, then in the busines of befriending Saddam, determined to put the
blame on the unfriendly Iranians [an endnote, inserted at this point, cites
as source: "Interview with filmmaker Gwyn Roberts, who produced conclusive
evidence that the chemical attack was an Iraqi one"] "
It would be most interesting to go to the March 1988 newspapers, to see what
and how Halabja was reported at the time. I'll do this when time permits,
unless someone manages to get there first...
Greetings from Sheffield
John S
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