Kurdistan Region: Donald Trump should apologize to Kurds

The Halabja governorate in the Kurdistan Region denounced statements made by the US Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump over praising the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein for using chemical weapons against the Kurds.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – On Monday, a local governorate in the Kurdistan Region denounced statements made by the US Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump over praising former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein for using chemical weapons against the Kurds.

Addressing Trump in a formal letter of which Kurdistan24 received a copy, the governor of Halabja described Trump as indifferent about the use of chemical gas against the Kurds.

“We would like to remind Mr. Trump that Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical gas in our city [Halabja] alone on March 16, 1988, killed over 5,000 civilians, including children, women, and men, and wounding over 10,000 more,” the letter read.

The letter was also a response to Trump’s statements praising the former Iraqi president responsible for atrocities against his country’s large Kurdish population.

“Saddam Hussein throws a little gas, everyone goes crazy, ‘oh, he’s using gas!’” Trump said last December at Hilton Head, South Carolina.

“[Saddam Hussein] was a bad guy…But you know what he did well? He killed Terrorists. He did that so good,” Trump said in July at Raleigh, North Carolina.

The letter further explained, “In fact, during Saddam’s three-decade reign, he killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq.”

“For example, in his so-called Anfal genocide campaign against Kurds, over 180,000 civilians are still unaccounted for,” the letter continued.

Interestingly enough, Trump had previously praised the Kurds many times in several interviews and speeches.

“I’m a fan of the Kurds…I’m a big fan of the Kurdish forces,” Trump told The New York Times three weeks ago.

However, Trump’s comments favoring Saddam Hussein were denounced, and an apology has been demanded.

“It’s quite deplorable for the potential leader of the ‘Free World’ to make such obnoxious statements, while many people of Halabja are still suffering from the aftermath of the chemical gas of 1988,” the letter stated.

“We demand an apology from Republican Presidential Nominee to families of the chemical gas victims, and we hope Mr. Trump would stop adding insult to injury in his future remarks,” the statement concluded.

 

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany