Saddam Hussein became the first leader in the world to systematically and aggressively gas his own people. Between 1983 and 1988 alone, he murdered more than 30,000 Iraqi citizens with mustard gas and nerve agents. Several international organizations claim that he killed more than 60,000 Iraqi citizens with chemicals, including large numbers of women and children. During his two-year Anfal Campaign against the Kurdish population, Saddam Hussein used these chemical weapons against more than 40 villages.

It was 6:20 p.m. on March 16, 1988, when a smell of apples descended on the town of Halabja. This Iraqi Kurdish town of 80,000 was instantly engulfed in a thick cloud of gas, as chemicals soaked into the clothes, mouths, lungs, eyes, and skin of innocent civilians. For three days, Iraqi Air Force planes dropped mustard gas, nerve agents known as sarin and tabun, and VX, a newly manufactured and highly lethal gas. These chemicals murdered at least 5,000 civilians within hours of the initial attack, and killed and maimed thousands more over the next several years. Halabja has experienced staggering rates of aggressive cancer, genetic mutation, neurological damage, and psychiatric disorders since 1988. If you walk through the streets today, you will still see many diseased and disfigured citizens.

Shaho was nine at the time. Within weeks, he began to suffer back pains and eventually was unable to stand or walk. "Before the chemical attack, I was perfectly healthy....I am certain that poison gas caused my illness. My mother lost her sight at the time, and I've got gradually worse ever since." Shaho spends each day at home lying on his mattress, turned every 30 minutes by his devoted sister to avoid bedsores.

— Gwynne Roberts, "Poisonous Weapons," Crimes of War, eds. Gutman and Rieff, (Singapore, 1999)

One citizen, Mr. Akra, was taken to a hospital in Iran before returning to Halabja to look for his family. "I saw over 200 bodies in just 100 meters. There was a terrible smell from the chemicals and the corpses. I went into the shelter. I first saw my grandmother. She had swollen up. Then I saw the blackened face of my mother and I lost consciousness."

— Guy Dinmore, Financial Times, July 10, 2002

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