'Chemical Ali' and Blair, the hero

Ali Hassan al-Majid, the infamous general and henchman of Saddam Hussein, was executed yesterday for his genocidal onslaught on the Kurdish population of Halabja in 1988. Many of the 5,000 Kurds killed that day died almost instantly as the cloud of poison gas settled upon them. Others suffered a slower, more gruesome death as the gas gradually liquidated their organs but did not actually kill them. Today, the few surviving victims suffer from their injuries; birth defects, breast, lung, skin, and other cancers, along with miscarriages, infertility and mental disorders have painted a dark, permanent, mark on their lives. "Chemical Ali", as he became known for his attack on Halabja, or the "Butcher of Kurdistan" for his co-ordination of the wider al-Anfal operation that systematically destroyed scores of villages and killed more than 120,000 Kurds in a campaign of gassings and mass executions, yesterday finally paid the price for his crimes. Justice will have been served for the Kurds and his execution provides some degree of closure for those who bore the brunt of the operations in the towns and villages of Halabja, Karadagh, Doli Khoshnawati and Barwari Bala. Harman Mohammad, a Kurd from Halabja who now studies at the vibrant Kurdistan University in Erbil, told me about his experience of the exodus that followed the attack. "I was just an infant, my mother held me close to her chest; we were vomiting and temporarily blinded as we tried to escape." Emotions were running high, he explained, but many feel Majid was given an easy exit and point out that he was not actually executed for genocide but for crimes against humanity, a verdict that does not really fit the crime. Some were more pragmatic though – "Chemical Ali has been dead for a long time," one Kurd told me, referring to Majid's capture and imprisonment since 2003. Visiting Halabja last April amid Iran's shelling of its mountainous terrain, it was clear that despite its scenic surroundings and attempts to move on from the past, the town continues to be haunted by a gloomy and grey atmosphere, a stark reminder of Majid's legacy that may always be there. Largely neglected over the years, Halabja needs investment and redevelopment, although they have increased over the past two years. It is ironic that in the same week Majid is executed, Tony Blair is to appear at the Chilcott Inquiry on Friday with the anti-war left looking to put him on trial for Britain's involvement in the 2003 war. Kurds will remember how after the Halabja attack Britain carried on as usual in its relations with Iraq. Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group explains how the US blamed the attack on Iran without ever providing evidence to support those claims. Majid saw no need to worry about a response from the west, as historian Charles Tripp neatly describes in yesterday's Guardian: Majid's attitude to this slaughter was captured on videotape when he told a group of party officials in the middle of the campaign: 'Who will say anything? The international community? Fuck them.' All too aware of Britain's tacit acquiescence to the Halabja gassing and not naive about Britain's past record in the Middle East – it was Winston Churchill who first sanctioned the gassing of the Kurds and it was Britain that denied them an independent Kurdish state – the Kurds know the Iraq war of 2003 did not, essentially, have anything to do with them. But then, after a moment's thought, it becomes clear that Blair, in removing Saddam and the Ba'ath regime from power, has somewhat reversed the wrongs of history and, against all odds, in favour of the Kurds (even if this was not the principal intention in the first place). As put to me at the weekend by Kurdistan's prime minister, Barham Salih, Blair is, quite simply, a hero to the Kurds. "He has transformed our lives by replacing the certainty of tyranny with the uncertainty of politics," Salih said. The Kurds call Halabja the Kurdish Holocaust; because of Blair's intervention, they can now also stand chest out, head high and breathe the famous words: "Never again."