Anniversary of the chemical crime against the people of Sardasht

The cries of those burned in Sardasht and Gaza were lost amid the clamor of self-styled human rights defenders

 

The cries of those burned in Sardasht and Gaza were lost amid the clamor of self-styled human rights defenders
By: Esmail Baqaei

Sardasht was the first city after World War II to taste the bitter breath of chemical gas amid the deafening silence of the world. A city whose people’s cries of being burned were drowned out by the noise of those claiming to defend human rights because on that day, humanity itself had lost its breath. Today, it is being repeated in Gaza.

Thirty eight years ago, on this very day, June 28, 1987, the sky over the oppressed city of Sardasht held no air; only the poisoned breath of chemical bombs. Bombs that had been manufactured in the industrial factories of so-called civilized powers and gifted to the Ba’athist regime of Iraq. That day, dozens of defenseless people in Sardasht lost their lives, and the legacy that remained was the rasping of chests and the struggle to breathe.

Sardasht was the first city after World War II to experience the bitter taste of chemical gas in the crushing silence of the world. A city where the cries of its burning people were lost in the uproar of human rights claimants because on that day, even humanity was out of breath.

Today, after decades, the darkness of that same heavy silence is repeated on another stage, not in the dusty alleyways of Sardasht, but in the blood-soaked ruins of Gaza. Its disgraceful footprints appear again in the delusion of aggression against Iran. The players are the same, the hearts and cores unchanged, only the masks have been switched. Shamelessness has replaced order and honesty.

Iran neither forgets nor forgives this old wound. The stench of gas and ash cannot be wiped from the memory of history by the hoopla of merchants of falsehood. Forgetfulness is like a poisoned chalice, one the sorcerer of the human rights myth brews for others, but fate turns such that he drinks the first sip himself.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry's Spokesman, Emsail Baqaei