Halabja remembers: 30th anniversary of chemical weapon attack

Martyn Warr, the UK Consul General to Erbil, told Rudaw that the world must never forget what happened in Halabja 30.

"It was the biggest use, the most awful use of chemical weapons against anbody and in this case, against a civilian population," said Warr.

With Kurdish the Kurdish New Year (Newroz) on March 21, Warr is "optimistic and hopeful."

"The sun is shining on our backs," said Warr.

UK Consul General in Erbil Martyn Warr speaks to Rudaw TV about the 30th anniversary of the Halabja attack.

 

Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki blamed Baathist-era behavior in a statement.

He called for the commemoration to be a witness to the behavior of the Baathist criminal government, said the head of Iraq's powerful Dawa Party.

He added in commemoration of the bombing of Halabja's martyrs, Iraqis bow to the dignity of the martyrs of Halabja and all the martyrs of Iraq.

Turkey's Consul General to Erbil Hakan Karachai issued a statement welcoming our "Iraqi Kurdish brothers who escaped from the Halabja massacre."

He added that he hopes the "blodshed in our region will cease, so harmony, tolerance, co-existence, and cooperation between different ethnic and sectarian groups will prevail."

Karachai promised that Turkey will work resolutely to ensure such suffering do not happen again.

 

------

5:58 p.m.

HDP statement: 'Yesterday Halabja, today Afrin'

The Central Executive Committee of the pro-Kurdish HDP in Turkey released a statement comparing Ankara's seven-week assault on the Kurdish canton of Afrin as the same as the massacre conducted by Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime in 1988.

HDP called Halabja a "disgrace" in the history of mankind, which has been judged and condemned as a "crime against humanity."

The Baathists “thought that they could destroy the struggle for equality and freedom of the Kurdish people in Iraq with chemical and biological weapons, both brought their own end and also failed to restrain the demand of the Kurdish people for freedom and self-governance."

 

Halabja yesterday, Afrin today...
Statement by our Central Executive Board: https://t.co/y1eWPPn9Tu pic.twitter.com/5S4yrLCW7o

— HDP English (@HDPenglish) March 16, 2018

 

The HDP stated that history has shown that despite "the most advanced means of war" demographic engineering "can only slow down historical development, but it never reverses it."

 

HDP pointed out the hypocrisy of Turkey's destruction and oppression in Afrin against the people "who have stood against ISIS barbarism."

 

"Freedom, equality, justice, democracy and the peace struggle can never be destroyed," wrote the HDP.

 

------

 

4:07 p.m.

UNAMI head says 'humanity must ensure' such atrocities don't occur

 

The United Nation’s representative to Iraq, Jan Kubis, expressed his sympathy for the survivors of the Halabja massacre. 

“Humanity must ensure such atrocities never allowed to happen again,” he stated. 




Ali Zmnako, who went missing from his family in 1988 but has since been reunited after DNA tests confirmed his identity, has tears in his eyes at the Halabja commemoration event. Photo: Sartip Othman/Rudaw

 

-----

2:58 pm

 

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi described the attack on Halabja as a “crime that shook the conscience of the world… one of the most terrible crimes committed by the Baathist regime” among its policy of tyranny against all Iraqis. 

On the anniversary, Abadi said Iraqi “affirms our pride in the unity of our people,” calling to mind Kurdish and Iraqi forces fighting side-by-side to achieve victory against ISIS. 

The secretary general of the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party called out Baghdad for its failure to compensate the Halabja victims or apologize.

"Now is the 30th anniversary of Halabja, but the Iraqi government is yet to apologize to the people of Kurdistan,” said Mohammed Haji Mahmoud, positing that if Baghdad apologizes, it will have to offer compensation to the victims, as it has done in Kuwait.

“Sadly, in the last 14 to 15 years, neither the Iraqi parliament nor the Iraqi government has done much to tend to some of the wounds of Halabja,” he lamented.

“We are not saying the current Iraq bombarded Halabja with chemical weapons. But Iraq is the heir of Iraq,” he continued. 

“The government that comes to power is the heir to the previous government, so it is necessary that they provide compensation,” as Germany has done after World War Two, he added.

 

A woman attends the Halabja commemoration ceremony on Friday. Photo: Sartip Othman/Rudaw

 

-----

1:40 pm

 

The acting governor of Halabja, Ali Osman, hailed Halabja’s return to life after the attack. 

"The Baathists thought that Halabja had been strangled, that Halabja had died. They thought they can kill the soul of the people of Halabja with this barbaric attack. But Halabja came back to life. Halabja became green again, and the Baathists and Saddam-ites are in the ground now,” said Osman. 

“The bravery of the people of Halabja was not merely in resistance, it is also in their waking up after the attacks,” he continued. 

The acting governor pointed out the intellectual and structural developments that have taken place in Halabja and urged Baghdad to complete the work to officials recognize Halabja as an independent province. 

Halabja was designated a province in December 2013, but many ministries and bodies have not taken practical steps towards dealing with Halabja as a province. 
 
"On behalf of the capital of peace…” Osman asked Iraqi officials attending the ceremony in Halabja to bring a message back to Baghdad, “and tell them that the people of Halabja have complaints.”
 
"You can bring peace to the souls of 5,000 martyrs,” he said.


TEV-DEM, the governing coalition in Rojava, northern Syria, drew comparisons between Halabja and Afrin, where at least 18 civilians were killed on the anniversary of the chemical weapon attack.

"The anniversary of the tragedy of Halabja takes place on the day the civilians of Afrin are faced with a barbaric bombardment by the army machinery of the Turkish aggression,” TEV-DEM stated. 

It condemned global silence on attacks against Kurds, asking “Are the victims to number in the thousands before the offenders are brought to an end?”

"If Halabja gave the world a lesson in the lack of morality and consciousness, then Afrin will give lessons in resistance and heroism,” TEV-DEM declared.

 

More photos of the commemoration ceremony are here.

 

-----

 

12:53 pm

 

"On the thirtieth anniversary of the Halabja chemical attacks, we remember those immortal infants, children, women, men, young, and old martyrs with sadness. They became the victims of the barbarism of one of the most dictatorial regimes in history, just for being Kurds,” the KRG said in a published statement. 

Victims continue to live with the suffering and pain, the KRG stating, calling on the Iraqi government to fulfill its duty to compensate the victims and “for the international community not to allow such attacks to place again anywhere in the world.”

The United States Embassy in Iraq offered its condolences to the families of the victims and sympathies to those still suffering from the effects of the attack. 

“In remembering this tragic day, the United States renews its commitment to supporting Iraq, a land that has been home to a vast array of ethnic and religious groups for centuries, and the Iraqi people in their efforts to prevent this kind of atrocity from ever happening again, and to continue building a diverse, prosperous, and democratic society,” read a statement from the embassy.

Watch: Kurdish youth in Erbil perform a dramatization of the Halabja attack.

 

-----

11:23 am

 

At a ceremony in Halabja, Kurdish officials were joined by Iraqi representatives and foreign diplomats, including Italian and Dutch consul generals. 

The KRG’s Minister of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs, Mahmood Salih Hama Karim, said the attack on Halabja was one of a string of acts that constitute “genocide and crimes against humanity.”

“Consecutive Iraqi regimes have killed the sons of our nations,” said Karim, noting that chemical weapons were used by the Baathist regime on many villages before Halabja, 8,000 Barzanis were imprisoned and buried alive in Iraq’s deserts, and Yezidis were subjected to mass killings. 

He said it was good that many of the perpetrators of Baathist-era crimes were prosecuted after 2003, but expressed sadness that Baghdad had not yet provided any compensation to the Halabja victims, noting that many are still suffering from the after-effects of the attack. 

A special hospital for the victims of Halabja has been built and equipped, but Karim said there are not specialist doctors employed at the facility. He lamented the fact that Halabja is not officially treated as a province by the Iraqi government and as such could not participate in the recent Kuwait donor conference to attract funds. 

The minister thanked Iran for helping the victims of Halabja and Germany for its work to have the attack officially recognized as genocide. 

 

The Kurdistan national anthem Ey Reqib is played at the commemoration ceremony in Halabja.

A representative of the Halabja Chemical Victims Society slammed the continued “racism” of the rules of the new Iraq. 

"The Saddam regime was toppled and so we had a lot of hope. The rulers of the new Iraq are not better than the past regime. They continued their racism,” said Hoshyar Yousif.

He also condemned the Kurdish authorities for failing the victims: “The Kurdish parties were also not loyal. Halabja should have been treated better. The region and the federal government as the inheritors of the previous regime should have compensated Halabja long ago."

Mehdi Alaq attended as a representative of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. 

"We all remember one of the most disgusting crimes by the former regime against the innocent people of Halabja. For 30 years, war raged across one of the most beautiful spots of the world, Kurdistan. They were horrifying scenes," Alaq told the gathered officials and residents of Halabja. 

As the wounds of Halabja were healing, the criminal group ISIS emerged, said Alaq, stressing that Kurds and Iraqis fought the group together, and “hand-in-hand our cities were defended.”

As Iraq looks to its post-ISIS future and commemorates the Halabja attack, Alaq said the opportunity should be used to renew brotherhood between the peoples of the country. 

"This nation, in all its components and ethnicities, stands together to hail the people of the Kurdistan Region,” he said. 

 

-----

9:46 am

 

The city of Halabja is today remembering those killed in the largest chemical weapon attack against a civilian population: 5,000 were killed on March 16, 1988 when the former Iraqi regime dropped a deadly cocktail of mustard gas, cyanide, and sarin in an attempt to eradicate the Kurdish resistance. 

Another 10,000 were injured, many of them and their children still suffering the effects of the attack today. 

Former KRG president Masoud Barzani extended his condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims, saying “that memory of loss and grief shall remain in our minds and hearts.”

He said that the Iraqi state remains “responsible for the massacre in Halabja and the reparations thereof.”

Murad Ismael, executive director of the Yezidi advocacy organization Yazda, formed in the wake of ISIS’ genocide against the minority in northern Iraq, shared his condolences for “another tragic moment of our region.”

“Mass crimes such as this one, unlike individual suffering, have a lasting trans-generation effect,” he tweeted. 

Halabja artist Hassan Murad has painted a portrait of the “living martyr.”