Powell visits victims of Saddam's gas attack in Iraqi Kurdistan
AFP


HALABJA, Iraq, Sept 15 (AFP) - 13h57 - US Secretary of State Colin Powell was given a hero's welcome in this Iraqi Kurdish town Monday, where thousands perished in a 1988 gas attack by Saddam Hussein's regime.

But elsewhere in Iraq the US military reported another soldier killed, on the second day of Powell's visit to the war-torn country, when a patrol came under grenade attack in Baghdad, bringing to 76 the number of troops killed since major combat was declared over on May 1.

As Washington continues to face criticism for its failure to find weapons of mass destruction in post-war Iraq -- touted as one of its main reasons for invading the country last March -- Powell's visit served as a reminder that Saddam used such weapons against his own people, the secretary of state's aides told AFP.

Powell arrived by helicopter at 11:30 am (0730 GMT) from Kirkuk, 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Baghdad, where he made a brief stopover to change aircraft.

In Halabja, 130 kilometres (80 miles) east of Kirkuk, he and US civil administrator Paul Bremer held talks with Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Massoud Barzani, chief of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, which share power in the region.

The town gave Powell a hero's welcome, lining the route to watch his convoy go past. Many inhabitants had donned traditional Kurdish dress of puffed trousers and a wide belt, to stand alongside Kurdish fighters decked out in local dress or fatigues.

Children thronged the streets making military salutes while the crowd held aloft portraits of US President George W. Bush and banners emblazoned with the words: "Our liberators are welcome," "We love America" or "Thank you President Bush".

Around 5,000 people perished in Halabja in 1988 when the Iraqi army unleashed poison gas in the town of more than 40,000 inhabitants amid a Kurdish revolt against Baghdad's rule.

During his stay of several hours before he left again for Kirkuk, Powell visited a small monument built to the tragedy surrounded by 1,000 gravestones on the edge of the town.

At a ceremony, with hundreds of relatives of those who perished, Powell stood flanked by Talabani, Barzani, Bremer and PUK member Bahram Saleh. Women wearing black headscarves and men in traditional dress carried flowers or pictures of their loved ones.

Addressing the crowd, Powell said: "This town is marked in history forever. The world should have acted sooner. What happened here in 1988 is never to happen again."

"Chemical Ali is in jail. He will stay in jail until an Iraqi court decides (on) his fate," he added, referring to Ali Hassan al-Majid, who is believed to have ordered the attack and was captured by US forces last month amid rejoicing in Halabja.

Saddam's Baath Party regime "will never return," Powell promised. "Soon you will vote on a new permanent constitution and then on a new government.

"The world will never forget. I will always remember Halabja ... I cannot tell you that the world should have acted sooner, you know that," he added.

Speaking in response, Talabani said: "We are very proud to be your allies in your struggle against tyranny. Now we have good chance to achieve a democratic Irak."

"The Kurds are proud to be part of the coalition that overthrew the Iraqi regime ... We want to build a future Iraq in which there will no longer be any mass graves," he added.

Powell toured a memorial museum that houses a vast collection of photographs, many of children, struck down dead in the street as the toxins engulfed the town.

On the walls are written the names of the 5,000 who died.

After a minute's silence, Powell stopped to speak to a mother carrying photographs of her children before going to light candles in the centre of the room with the other officials.

"We fled to the mountains to hide in caves. It was the Iranians who came to find us to take us to the hospitals in Tehran. Today there are still people who have respiratory attacks and serious skin diseases," said Esmail Abdulrahim Saleh, a local teacher who was 12 years old in 1988.

Kadhaz Hama-Amin has a 15-year-old daughter, a baby at the time of the massacre, who suffers from breathing problems.

"I've seen a lot of doctors about my daughter, but no one is able to say how she will pull through," she told AFP.

Powell arrived in Baghdad on Sunday, where he stressed the need for a progressive return to Iraqi sovereignty but brushed off French calls for a more rapid handover.

He also hailed progress in rebuilding Iraq's shattered economy and political system, despite warning that "terrorists" were out to derail reconstruction.

"The major new threat are the terrorists who are trying to infiltrate the country for the purpose of destroying this very hopeful process," he said Sunday. "We will not allow that to happen."