Iraq's chemical weapons fully destroyed, 30 years after Halabja

Friday's ceremony marking the anniversary of the gassing of Halabja was the first year this observance was held in an Iraq free of chemical weapons, according to an international organization that has just declared all remnants of the weapons destroyed.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Friday's ceremony marking the anniversary of the gassing of Halabja was the first time the yearly observance was held in an Iraq free of chemical weapons, according to an international organization that has just declared all remnants of the illegal weapons destroyed.

Three days earlier, to little fanfare, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) presented a certificate, recognizing the complete destruction of Iraq's decades-old stores of chemical weapons to the country's Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

“I welcome this notable achievement and congratulate the Iraqi Government for their efforts in ensuring the proper destruction of these dangerous chemicals and for fulfilling its obligations deriving from the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC),” stated the group's director general Ahmet Üzümcü at Tuesday's ceremony in The Hague, Netherlands.

The mission of the OPCW is to implement the provisions of the CWC to identify and destroy all chemical weapons remnants worldwide. Iraq is one of the international convention's 37 member states.

On Friday's anniversary of the Halabja attack, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, in a statement, “Today, our people and the world recall the hideous massacre of Halabja, committed by the regime of Saddam Hussein. Our beloved people, that crime which shook the hearts and consciences of ours and the world targeted thousands of dear Kurdish people.”

"It was one of worst crimes committed by the regime," he added, before highlighting the OPCW recognition of Iraq's new status as chemical weapons-free.

Also on Friday, General Secretary of the Council of Ministers Mahdi al-Alaq attended the ceremonies in Halabja on behalf of Abadi and pledged that the Iraqi government will compensate the victims of the chemical attack.

Iraq’s initial declaration of its remaining chemical weapons, submitted to the OPCW in March 2009, referred to remnants stored in two storage bunkers at the Muthanna State Establishment, the main chemical weapons research, development, and production facility of the former Iraqi government, outside the city of Samara.

The Islamic State (IS) took control of the site in 2014, but it is not known whether or not they transported chemical weapons or their precursors from it.

In November 2017 and February 2018, OPCW technician teams confirmed that all four former chemical weapons production facilities in Iraq had been fully dismantled.

On March 16, 1988, Iraqi aircrafts launched a chemical attack on the city of Halabja, killing some 5,000 people and injuring 10,000 more.

The Iraqi High Criminal Court recognized the Halabja massacre as an act of genocide on March 1, 2010

Editing by John J. Catherine