What has happened to the survivors since then is much worse, says Gosden, than she could have imagined. Western military manuals say chemical weapons disperse after a few days, and are generally silent on the question of long-term effects. Many are covered with horrible skin eruptions. People have gone blind and suffered severe neurological damage. Couples have become infertile, or produced children with mental retardation, heart defects, hare lip, cleft palate and other major malformations.
Miscarriages are alarmingly frequent.
Crops have been blighted to this day. Domestic animals are producing few progeny, and many that are born are malformed. Snakes and locusts have mutated, becoming larger and more aggressive. And Halabja, forgotten by the world, has sunk into a collective state of depression. Some people have gone insane, and suicides are increasingly common.