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Halabja / Kurdistan

Peace prize for the Halabja mayor in commemoration of the 5000 poison gas victims

Bolzano/Bozen, Göttingen, Juni 24, 2011

Picture of Halabja's Mayor Khder Kareem (left) in conversation with Hannover's Mayor Stephan Weil

On June 25. and 26. 2011, Halabja's mayor, Khder Kareem, will be awarded with the Peace Prize of the International Peace Bureau (IPB) of Italy. During the award conference, in which Khder Kareem will be present, a cooperation agreement will be signed between the university of Halabja and the department for oriental studies of the Ravenna section of the university of Bologna. The Kurdish mayor will also use the opportunity to commemorate the tragic death of 5,000 people through the attacks with poison gas by the Iraqi army on March 16, 1988. The survivors are still suffering the consequences of the attack and still need help.

23 years ago, from March 16th to 18th 1988, Iraqi airplanes bombed the city of Halabja and all of its access roads with poison gas. Halabja's 80,000 inhabitants were assailed with mustard gas, nerve gas, sarin, tabun, and probably cyanide. The chemical substances burnt through their clothes and affected their skin, eyes, and lungs. At least 5,000 people died within a few hours. Many who looked for protection in basements died when the heavy gases sank into the ground. At least 7,000 people were seriously injured to the point that they died later or suffered permanent health problems including nerve paralysis, skin illnesses, tumors, miscarriages, and lung damage.

Since 2003, the northern Iraqi state of Kurdistan has been recognized from Baghdad and with its own state government, parliament, prime minister, and even its own president, can largely govern itself. However, Christians, Mandaeans, and Yezidi are still persecuted and displaced in Iraq's Arab regions. Kurdistan has already taken in tens of thousands of these refugees. There is an atmosphere of national and religious tolerance in Kurdistan. Assyrians-Aramaean-Chaldeans, Armenians and Turks are represented in the regional parliament thanks to a quota regulation.