Former Iraqi Defense Minister Says He Received No Orders to Use Chemical Weapons

Former Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai testified at trial yesterday that he was never ordered to use chemical weapons during the Hussein regime’s 1980s campaign against the country’s Kurdish population, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 6).

“I did not receive any order asking me to use chemical weapons, but if so I would have implemented it.  I did not receive any chemical-related weapons,” said al-Tai, who led the Iraqi Army 1st Corps during the Anfal campaign that prosecutors said killed 180,000 Kurds.  Chemical agents are alleged to have been used repeatedly during the operation, killing 5,000 people in a 1988 attack on the village of Halabja (see GSN, March 19).

Al-Tai and five other former senior Iraqi officials are being tried for orchestrating the Anfal campaign.  Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was also being tried prior to his execution following an earlier conviction (see GSN, Jan. 3).

The six remaining defendants could also face execution if convicted.

Lead prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon displayed a letter in which al-Tai’s superiors requested that he use “special ammunition (chemical weapons) against enemy poison,” AP reported (Sameer Yacoub, Associated Press/North County Times, May 6).

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