Talafar residents not interested in executing Chemical Ali

NINEWA / IraqiNews.com: Residents of Talafar district did not pay attention to the execution of Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former Iraqi official known as Chemical Ali, as some people considered it as a worthless subject, while others considered it as an electoral gain to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “Its not important for me who is going to be hanged or who committed suicide nor even who is ruling Iraq, the most important thing for me is to work and get money to feed my nine-people family,” Abdulkarim Mohammad, an employee, told IraqiNews.com news agency, noting to the tough economic condition in Talafar. “The citizen here has became no more interested in politics or politicians, because we felt nothing has changed in our life,” he added. The official spokesman for the Iraqi government, Ali al-Dabbagh, had said on Monday (Jan. 25) that Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former Iraqi official known as Chemical Ali, was executed. Majid, an enforcer in Saddam Hussein’s regime, was convicted of killing Shiites in 1991 and 1999. He was also sentenced to death for a gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988. It is believed that about 5,000 people died in the attack, most of them women and children. “Hanging Chemical Ali is a worthless thing,” Salem Mohammad Salem said, wondering why the government does not care about millions of widows and orphans as a result of terrorist attacks throughout the country. “I do not care whether he was hanged or released,” he asserted. Meanwhile, Rajaa Rasoul, a housewife expressed happiness to  IraqiNews.com news agency over hanging Ali “because he killed thousands of innocents Iraqis.” While, Salim Ali, a lawyer, considered the execution as a political gain to the Iraqi government and to Dawlat a-Qanoon alliance, headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. “Political goals stand behind the execution of Chemical Ali in this time before the coming parliamentary elections next March,” he told IraqiNews.com news agency. Gen. Majid, 68, received his final sentence Jan. 17 for his most notorious offense: the March 1988 chemical-weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in northeastern Iraq. An estimated 5,000 Kurds died and as many as 10,000 others were injured when Iraqi aircraft dropped a variety of chemical bombs containing mustard gas, nerve gas and other toxic agents. It was the deadliest chemical attack against civilians in history. Born in Tikrit – also Hussein’s home town – on Nov. 30, 1941, Gen. Majid grew up in a poor family and received little formal education. He was a driver in the Iraqi army and a motorcycle messenger before his fortunes turned in 1968, when Hussein’s Baath Party regained power. Talafar is 60 km northwest of Mosul, which lies 405 km north of Baghdad. SH (I)/SR 1