[CPEO-MEF] Kurdish schools and chemical weapons residuals

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

U.S. gift may bring new grief to Kurds
Iraq: Schools are being built on sites that might be contaminated from 
poison gas attacks under Saddam Hussein.


By Mark Matthews
Baltimore Sun
December 16, 2004

WASHINGTON - In what was intended as a humanitarian gesture, the United 
States provided $1 million this year to build two schools in Halabja, 
the town in northern Iraq that was the victim of poison gas attacks in 
1988 that the Bush administration has held up as a prime example of 
Saddam Hussein's atrocities.

But some U.S. officials and advocates for the region's Kurdish residents 
fear the gift could bring further grief to a town where the attacks 
killed 5,000 people, maimed and blinded thousands, and left a legacy of 
serious disease and birth defects among survivors.

Preliminary soil tests conducted by the Washington Kurdish Institute, a 
private aid and advocacy organization, indicate the sites where the 
elementary schools are being built could be contaminated by toxic 
material. Despite the institute's appeals to U.S. and Iraqi officials 
for more conclusive studies, none has been performed.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-te.halabja16dec16,1,6529322.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org

_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@list.cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/military