The Alternative Dossier 1: Arms and the Man
'Iraq had made frequent use of a variety of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war... In 1988 Saddam...used mustard and nerve agents against Iraqi Kurds at Halabja in northern Iraq. Estimates vary, but according to Human Rights Watch up to 5,000 people were killed.' The Government's dossier on Iraq released on 24 September 2002
The images of people frozen in instant death after Iraq gassed thousands of people shocked the world. To this day the massacre at Halabja, which the government refers to in its long awaited dossier on Iraq and which Blair mentioned when he addressed the TUC this year, remains a terrible crime. If anyone doubts the brutality of the Iraqi regime, then they have only to remember what Saddam Hussein did in March 1988.