By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent
NOWDESHEH, Iran (Reuters) - High in remote Kurdishmountains, Iranian villagers still nurse ravaged eyes andlungs, 20 years after Iraqi poison gas attacks that went mostlyignored by world powers then siding with Saddam Hussein againstIran.
That perceived hypocrisy continues to rankle in the IslamicRepublic, now accused by the West of seeking nuclear weapons.
It was 4 p.m. on March 17, 1988 when Iraqi planes droppedeight mustard gas bombs over the wood-beamed stone houses ofNowdesheh, nestled in a green horseshoe valley near the border.
"I saw the gas and smelled peaches," said Dara Meshkati,who was 10 years old at the time. "Then my eyes closed and Icouldn't see anything. I was blind for two months."
U.N. investigators said 13 people were killed and over 100injured in the attack -- an event eclipsed by Iraq's chemicalassault the day before that killed about 5,000 Iraqi Kurds inHalabja, 25 km (15 miles) across the frontier to the west.
At that time, no asphalt road linked Nowdesheh with thenearest small town of Paveh, so the victims faced a joltingfive-hour evacuation over a dirt track through the mountains.
Meshkati, a pale-faced man with listless eyes, recoveredhis eyesight and is well enough to work in an accountant'soffice, but still suffers from asthma -- and psychologicalscars.
"Nobody drinks water from my glasses. People here think Ihave a problem," he complained.
He is just one of scores of survivors in Nowdesheh, whichsuffered three gas attacks in the same month of 1988, the finalyear of Iran's ruinous eight-year war with Saddam's Iraq.
"We went to help the wounded," recalled Rahim Maghrouzi,52, a surgical mask over his mouth. "We didn't realize it waschemical weapons. My skin turned red. We tried to wash our eyeswith water. I still can't breathe properly and I can't work."
DEATH ROW
Maghrouzi, like many in this village of 5,000, is awaitingthe day when Iraqi authorities execute the death sentencepassed last year on Ali Hassan al-Majeed, a senior Saddamhenchman, for his role in a bloody campaign against Iraqi Kurdsin the 1980s.
"Chemical Ali is responsible for what happened to me," saidMaghrouzi, using Majeed's nickname. "I hope he is hanged."
Majeed sits on death row in a U.S. jail in Iraq, his fatetangled in a row between the Iraqi government and presidentialcouncil over signing off on the execution orders of hiscohorts.
Saddam himself was hanged in 2006 on a narrow chargeunrelated to his government's actions against Iraqi Kurds andIran -- something many Iranians view as a missed opportunity.
"We are happy Saddam was put on trial, but sad he was nevertried for what he committed against the Iranian people andKurds in Iraq with chemical weapons," said Shahriar Khateri, a37-year-old Iranian doctor who runs a support group forsurvivors -- like himself -- of Iraqi poison gas attacks.
"There was no chance to talk about these atrocities," hetold Reuters. "It's the same for Chemical Ali. They should havebeen tried in an international criminal tribunal."
Khateri said the government had registered at least 55,000survivors of Iraqi chemical attacks, 7,000 of them civilians,but the true figure was higher because many people exposed tolow levels of mustard gas only developed symptoms years later.
Iraq used mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin repeatedlyduring the war, partly to counter human wave assaults byIranian basijis -- mostly young volunteers ready to sacrificethemselves for Iran and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamicrevolution.
MUSTARD GAS AT DAWN
Ali Jalali was a 21-year-old basiji fighting near Merivan,40 km (25 miles) north of Nowdesheh, in 1987, when an Iraqirocket filled with mustard gas struck near his tent at dawn,killing all but a few of his 24 comrades.
"I thought I would die too," he said.
Jalali, who speaks with a rasping cough, perhaps owes hislife to Japanese doctors who later treated him in Tokyo formore than four months for injuries to his eyes, skin and lungs.
Married with one child before the attack, he could have nomore children afterwards, but does not regret his sacrifice. "Ichose my way myself. I had to do my duty for my country."
Mustard gas commonly inflicts respiratory problems andrecurrent lung infections, progressive eye lesions that canlead to blindness, and itching sores and scars on the skin.
"Then there is the psychological impact, which is notvisible but is very serious for the victims, especiallycivilians," said Khateri, himself a basiji war veteran.
In Nowdesheh, Faik Fallahi, a bearded 50-year-old withglasses, sat in his bare living room next to his oxygen bottleand a heap of medicine bottles, capsules and pill packets.
"We have become like laboratory rats," he told visitors ona tour organized by Khateri's society. "No medicine works forus."
Fallahi, a father of four who is unable to work, said thechemical attack had destroyed his life. "I can't sleep atnight. I have no life, no social life. I am at home all thetime."
There is no cure for lungs affected by mustard gas,according to Hamid Sohrabpour, a chest specialist who was incharge of Iran's wartime medical response to chemical attacks.
He said Iran had swiftly deployed medical teams, fieldhospitals and protective clothing once it had identifiedmustard gas as the cause of the mysterious symptoms of earlyvictims.
"The worst experience was in the first two months. Therewere loads of patients coming in and it was desperate becausewe didn't know how to deal with the problem," the physiciansaid.
Sohrabpour, Khateri and several survivors insisted thatSaddam and Chemical Ali were not the only culprits for theIraqi poison gas attacks, citing evidence that German and otherforeign firms had helped Iraq develop its chemical arsenal.
"Several reports by U.N. experts confirmed the use of nerveagents and mustard gas by Saddam's regime. Unfortunately therewas no reaction by the international community," Khateri said.
(Editing by Ralph Boulton)
