In the painful calendar of contemporary history, there are days that have become symbols of crimes against humanity. 28 June 1987 is one such day; the day when the smell of mustard gas descended from the sky upon the border town of Sardasht and suffocated life in the throats of its people. At four o’clock that afternoon, in the midst of the devastating and reactionary Iran-Iraq War, warplanes of the fascist Ba’ath regime shattered the town’s silence with a deadly gift, raining chemical bombs upon an unsuspecting and defenseless civilian population that had played no role in provoking or prolonging that war.
The Sardasht catastrophe marked a horrific turning point in the history of modern warfare. Since the First World War, it was the first time that weapons of mass destruction had been used on such a scale against a populated urban area and its civilian inhabitants. In the course of this historic crime, more than 130 innocent people lost their lives, while thousands more were left permanently suffering from the painful effects of poisonous gases. Today, 39 years later, the consequences of that human tragedy remain. The survivors of the attack not only continue to endure unbearable physical pain and suffering, but have also passed its consequences on to subsequent generations.
The Iraqi Ba’ath regime had previously used chemical weapons on a limited scale against Peshmerga forces in Iraqi Kurdistan and on the war fronts. However, the attack on an entire city demonstrated the escalation of the criminal dimensions of this reactionary war. The attack was also a test of the international community’s silence. A few months later, having witnessed the deadly indifference of the world’s major powers, Saddam Hussein repeated the same crime on an even more horrifying scale in Halabja, claiming the lives of nearly five thousand people in pursuit of his ambitions.
In this tragedy, the role of the Western governments ‘who themselves had drafted the 1925 Protocol prohibiting the production and use of chemical weapons’ remains an everlasting stain of disgrace. Having sold the chemical agents and the technology for manufacturing chemical weapons to war criminals, these governments, guided by their own political and economic interests, knowingly remained silent in the face of the Sardasht catastrophe. In doing so, they gave the Ba’ath regime a free hand to repeat its crimes. Their silence was the green light that paved the way for the Halabja tragedy.
Yet there is another accomplice in this story. During these past 39 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has done nothing but engage in hypocritical displays of victimhood and exploit the blood of the victims for propaganda purposes, while itself bearing major responsibility for creating the conditions that made such tragedies possible. The rulers who, at the time, beat the drum of “War, War Until Victory” and dreamed of reaching Jerusalem through Karbala intensified the flames of war through their adventurist policies. At the outset of the war, Khomeini described it as a “divine blessing” and used it as a golden opportunity to consolidate his rule, crush the people’s revolution, carry out the widespread repression of communists and political opponents, and reverse all the democratic achievements won by the people during the 1979 Revolution. The establishment of military garrisons in the heart of cities, including Sardasht, turned civilians into human shields for the regime’s military objectives and exposed them to direct enemy attacks.
Today, the crocodile tears shed by the leaders of the Islamic Republic for the victims of Sardasht cannot erase this historical truth. Throughout these years, thousands of survivors and victims suffering from chemical injuries “especially those from the poorest sections of society” have been deprived of even the most basic medical treatment needed to alleviate their pain and suffering. Every year, the regime organizes staged ceremonies and exploits the name of Sardasht to sanctify the war and justify its own crimes, yet the one thing that has never mattered to it is the lives and fate of the very victims whose memory it claims to honor.
History has recorded the names of criminals such as Saddam Hussein and his accomplices as the direct perpetrators of the chemical bombardment of Sardasht. Alongside them, however, it will not forget the rulers of the Islamic Republic as accomplices whose warmongering policies created the conditions for this catastrophe and who subsequently exploited it for their own political purposes.
On the anniversary of this human tragedy, while honoring the memory of the defenseless people who lost their precious lives, we once again express our profound hatred and condemnation of that reactionary war and of all those who ordered, carried out, or were complicit in this great crime. Sardasht remains a living testament to the devastation wrought by war and to the hypocrisy of governments that treat human lives as instruments for achieving their inhuman objectives.
