Kurds eagerly await verdicts in '80s attacks

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq -- Kurds bought sheep to slaughter in celebration and stockpiled generator fuel to keep televisions working for today's verdict against Saddam Hussein's cousin, known as Chemical Ali, and others accused in a 1980s crackdown against them.

Many in northern Iraq said they anticipating the harshest penalty possible against Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam's cousin and the former head of the Baath Party's Northern Bureau Command, who is accused of responsibility for using chemical weapons against Kurds in the scorched-earth campaign of the late 1980s to crush a rebellion in the north.

The case does not include the deaths of an estimated 5,600 people in a 1988 chemical-weapons attack in Halabja.

But the impoverished town has become a focal point for the anger over the operation that led to the deaths of 100,000 Kurds.

"Finally, the past hard days are gone. I am ready to start over without this burden on my chest," said Lokman Abdul-Qader, 40, who lost six relatives in the chemical attack.

Al-Majid has denied he was responsible for the Halabja attack or others.

The prosecution says 180,000 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the operation.

The defendants, who face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, have claimed that they were acting on orders and that the campaign was aimed at Kurdish rebels supporting Iran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. If convicted, they could face death by hanging.

Saddam Hussein was a defendant but was executed on Dec. 30 after his conviction for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail after a 1982 attempt on his life.

Salimah Bakhtiar, a 45-year-old Kurdish woman from the nearby city of Sulaimaniyah, lost her parents and two brothers in the campaign and planned to travel to Halabja to watch the verdict on television with relatives.

On Saturday, she sent her son to purchase a sheep to slaughter in honor of the victims and extra gasoline for the generator to make sure the television works through any power outages. "I want to make sure all the family sees the looks on the criminals' faces after the order to be executed is announced."

Besides al-Majid, other defendants include former defense minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai; Sabir al-Douri, former director of military intelligence; Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces; and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office.