Victims of Sardasht chemical attack demand aid from Iranian government
SARDASHT, Iran - More than three decades after Saddam Hussein’s regime's chemical attack on Kurds in Sardasht City, western Iran (Rojhelat), thousands continue calling on the government to recognize them as victims of the attack and to provide them with aid.
A medical team from Tehran is set to visit Sardasht, West Azerbaijan province, later this week to check up on the health of 625 people who have registered their names as victims of the June 1987 chemical gas attack, to verify their claims.
The visit is aimed at determining who is affected by the attack, as well as checking the physical damage on the bodies of the victims.
“When they realized a large number of people registered their names, they stopped the process of taking new names. The data must have exceeded 13,000 had they not suspended it,” Hussein Mohammediyani, one of the victims of the attack, told Rudaw on Monday.
He also said that authorities began the process two years ago to allow victims to come forward and register their names.
The Iranian government has only registered 1,500 affected people and provides them with limited services.
As a result of the attack, which took place in the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war, 110 people were killed and thousands of others were injured.
In addition to the trauma endured and the physical wounds, victims also face constant marginalization by the government.
A medical team from Tehran is set to visit Sardasht, West Azerbaijan province, later this week to check up on the health of 625 people who have registered their names as victims of the June 1987 chemical gas attack, to verify their claims.
The visit is aimed at determining who is affected by the attack, as well as checking the physical damage on the bodies of the victims.
“When they realized a large number of people registered their names, they stopped the process of taking new names. The data must have exceeded 13,000 had they not suspended it,” Hussein Mohammediyani, one of the victims of the attack, told Rudaw on Monday.
He also said that authorities began the process two years ago to allow victims to come forward and register their names.
The Iranian government has only registered 1,500 affected people and provides them with limited services.
As a result of the attack, which took place in the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war, 110 people were killed and thousands of others were injured.
In addition to the trauma endured and the physical wounds, victims also face constant marginalization by the government.