"The Halabja incident would not have taken place without help from Germany" – Germany is obliged to help the persecuted Kurds in the Middle East

On occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the poison gas attack of the Iraqi Air Force against the Kurdish town of Halabja (March 16th to 18th, 1988), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) emphasizes that the German Federal Government is obliged to be mindful of the discriminated Kurdish people in the countries of the Middle East. "At that time, the Iraqui chemical weapons program was dependent on German help. New investigations of the UN Commission have now found evidence that shows which countries or companies had supplied the toxic chemicals – and it has become clear that the attacks on Halabja would hardly have been possible without German participation," says Tilman Zülch, General Secretary of the Society for Threatened Peoples, emphasizing the appeal issued by the human rights organization. The former USSR and other European countries were also involved in providing dictator Saddam Hussein's army with the chemical arsenal.

25 Years ago, about 5,000 of the approximately 80,000 inhabitants of Halabja died within a few hours after the city and the roads were bombed with poisonous gas. At least 7,000 people died later due to the after-effects of the chemical weapons. The survivors of Halabja still suffer from the consequences of the bombing with mustard gas, nerve gas, sarin, tabun and most likely cyanide. In Halabja, there are still dangerously high levels of toxins – leading to permanent health effects such as nerve paralysis, skin diseases, tumor formations, miscarriages and lung damages.

The attack on Halabja is the largest poison gas attack against the civilian population since World War II. It was part of the attempt to wipe out the Kurds of northern Iraq – and also the ethnic groups of Assyrian-Chaldeans, the Christians, Turkmen and Yazidis living with them – which the Baath regime pursued from 1987 onwards. Back then, the STP had already accused the Hessian companies Karl Kolb and Pilot Plant of having played an important role in building up the Iraqi poison gas industry and therefore being partly responsible for the crimes. In 1978, the regional court in Bonn decided that the human rights organization would have to pay a fine of twice 500,000 DM if these accusations were repeated.

However, by citing a report in the "Jerusalem Post" in 1988, the STP was able to confirm the allegations against Kolb and Pilot Plant – and the regional court in Cologne lifted the injunction against the STP. Six days after a demonstration of the human rights organization against the company in Dreieich (Hesse), the companies' CEOs were arrested and detained for a while. Their involvement in the construction of the facilities could be proven. They were found guilty – but were released again, because their crimes had already become time-barred.

According to research by the STP, more than 40 other German and European companies were involved in the annihilation – among them the armaments group MBB Messerschmitt Bolkow-Blohm. The poison gas attacks against the Kurdish and Christian villages in 1987 and 1988 had been carried out with their combat helicopters.