 Iran wants Saddam Hussein, whose Baghdad trial resumed yesterday, to be charged with ordering poison gas attacks that killed thousands of Iranian civilians during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, a top Iranian official said. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saddam had used chemical weapons to kill Iranians during the war, especially in Iranâs northwestern Kurdish area, flattening entire villages and destroying farms. âIran is the main victim of chemical weapons. Saddamâs use of chemicals was against international laws,â Mottaki told reporters in a hospital where he was visiting âliving martyrsâ, wounded survivors of Saddamâs chemical weapons attacks.
| Usually I disagree with the Medes and the Persians almost reflexively. Sammy's use of chem weapons in the Iran War was the first large-scale use since WWI. |
Several dozen veterans wounded by chemical weapons are undergoing treatment in central Tehranâs Sassan Hospital, one of two hospitals in the capital specializing in such wounds. Mottaki said Iran had prepared a petition which the Foreign Ministry would pass on to the court in Baghdad. âThe court has yet to review Saddamâs crimes abroad. We want his crimes against Iranians to be investigated,â he said.
| They're currently concentrating on his crimes against his own people, which makes the Iranian claims irrelevant to this case. That doesn't bar a second, separate case, assuming his neck's not stretched first. |
The petition included documents that proved Iraqâs use of nerve and mustard gas during the eight-year war, Mottaki said. âDuring the war, Saddam used chemicals against Iran 20 times,â Mottaki said, adding that some 40,000 people had been affected. Iran has repeatedly accused the West of supplying Saddam with the technology and some of the materials to develop chemical weapons. âWestern countries and companies that supplied Saddam with chemicals share the responsibility for this crime,â Mottaki said. âSaddam acquired chemicals from more than 400 Western companies, including 25 American, 15 German and 10 British companies.â |