Ya Bass

Justice is beginning to be dealt as a court in the Netherlands sentences Dutch arms trader Frans van Anraat to 15 years in prison for his role in the supply of ingredients used to make chemical weapons which were to be used by Saddam Hussein's regime against Kurdish civilians in an attempt at ethnic cleansing. Before van Anraat could be convicted, the judges had to decide whether the 1988 attack on Iraqi Kurds in Halabja amounted to genocide, it's findings stated

The court has no other conclusion than that these attacks were committed with the intent to destroy the Kurdish population of Iraq.

The role of van Anraat in the genocide may have been a small one but nonetheless the decision is important because it recognises acts of genocide against the Kurds in Iraq and as such another small step towards justice for those innocent victims.

Some background to the trial can be read on the blog From Holland to Kurdistan, here and here.