Kurdistan And The Gassing of Halaba With Updates

With the Newroz (Kurdish New Year) celebrations fast approching (March 21) it seemed a good time to post (repost actually, from my own pages) this article on the An-Fal campaign that was leveled against the Kurds of Northern Iraq. More information on Kurdistan, her struggle for autonomy, the annexation referendums in Kirkuk and Khanaqin, and Kurdish history in general will follow in the next few days. There are vast similarities between the struggles of Kurdistan and those of Palestine. Both were victims of forced occupation at the same time, under the same resolutions, and neither has fared well.
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Saddam Hussien may be the first world leader in modern times to have brutally used chemical weapons against his own people. His goals were to systematically  terrorize and exterminate the Kurdish population in Northern Iraq, to silence his critics, and to test the effectiveness of his chemical and biological weapons. Hussein launched chemical attacks against 40 Kurdish villages and thousands of innocent civilians in 1987-88, using them as testing grounds. The worst of these attacks devastated the city of Halabja on March 16, 1988. As the world looked the other way in silence, Saddam used weapons obtained from the United States, India, Germany, among others, to commit one of those most blood-chillingly gruesome crimes known to the modern world. Why the silence? America, for one will be haunted for centuries to come for its part in this attempted genocide, which the people of America are just now finding out about. There is so much more to tell, and many blogs will follow this one. Rest assured, I will not be made blind or silent.


Immediate Medical Effects in Halabja


*Death by asphyxiation
*Skin burns and blisters
*Impaired vision
*Breathing difficulty, respiratory shutdown
*Vomiting, diarrhea, digestive shutdown
*Neurological disorder
*Convulsions, coma

Long-term medical Effects in Halabja


*Permanent blindness
*Disfigurement
*Leukemia, lymphoma, and colon, breast, lung, skin, and other cancers
*Increased miscarriages and infertility
*Severe congenital malformations and other birth defects

Chemical Weapons Used


Saddam's regime purposefully mixed mustard gas and nerve agents to magnify the initial and long term effects.
*Mustard gas, a blistering agent, affects membranes of the mouth, throat, and lungs.
*Nerve agents such as sarin, tabun, and VX attack eyes and respiratory tracts.
*Chemical weapons contaminate the food and water supplies, soil, and animal populations.

Halabja: A Testing Ground

Iraqi soldiers in protective gear returned to Halabja to study the effectiveness of their weapons and attacks. They divided the city into grids, determining the number and location of the dead and the extent of injury. Halabja helped Saddam Hussein gauge the ability of his chemical agents to kill, maim, terrorize population centers.

Iraqi government troops would be surrounding the attack site and they would have chem-bio suits on...included would be doctors and interested observers....they would go in and find out how many people were dead...and how many survived. What ages...did men, women or chilldren or the elderly sufffer most? From there they would shoot the survivors and burn the bodies....

Who are the Kurds?

The Kurds are a people of Indo-European origin who live mainly in the mountains and uplands where Turkey, Iraq, and Iran meet, in an area known as Kurdistan for hundreds of years. They have their own language, related to Persian but divided into two distinct dialect areas. No firm statistics exist for the Kurdish population but a cautious estimate, based on their believed population proportion in each state on 1987 is currently 19.7 million. Although the Kurdish people are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, they embrace Jews, Christian, Yazidis and other sects.

From the 16th century the Ottoman and Persian Empires allowed the Kurdish tribes almost total autonomy in return for keeping the peace on the rugged but open border area between the two empires. From the mid-19th armed with rifles, machine guns, and later warplanes, the governments of the region decided to control the border themselves and bring these previously independent tribes under direct control. At the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was carved up and the Kurds found themselves segmented between Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.

In each of the post-war countries, the Kurds found they were treated with suspicion and pressured to conform to the ways of the majority. Thier old independence and traditional pastoralist way of life was rapidly reduced. They were expected to learn the main language of the new state in which they found themselves, Turkish, Persian or Arabic, to abandon their Kurdish identity and to accept Turkish, Iranian or Arab nationalism. As a tribal and traditionally minded society the Kurds wanted to be left in peace, but few then were Nationalists. Some tribes tried to resist the encroachment of government while their rivals benefitted from cooperating with the government. But an increasing number of Kurds felt the deliberate undermining of their cultural identities.

In Turkey

In Turkey almost 10 million Kurds are forbidden, by law, to use their own language or to describe themselves as Kurds, on pain of imprisonment Kurds are officially known as "Mountain Turks." In the 1920's and 30's Kurds rebelled against this discrimination, and the government supressed them with great ferocity, deporting thousands from their homeland. The continued stringent supression of over 9 million people has resulted the rise of a Marxist-like guerrilla group.

In Iran

In Iran the Kurds were similarly brought under control in the 1920s. In 1946 the Kurds of Mahabad succeeded in declaring an independent republic, but it only lasted a few months, and the authorities hanged the ringleaders. Tribal chief were allowed to register tribal lands as personal possessions and were welcomed into the Iranian ruling elite, in return for making sure their tribes obeyed the government. After the shia revolution the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) rebelled after demands for autonomy were rejected by Tehran

In Iraq

There were numerous revolts against Baghdad, mainly by Mullah Mustafa Barzani, the famous leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP). From 1964 until 1975 Barzani was strong enough to maintain an intermittent state of war and peace negotiations. In 1974 the ruling Baath Party offered the Kurds autonomy, but the Kurds believed it lacked substance and reverted to war, strongly supported and encouraged by Iran. But in 1975 the Shah of Iran, who had supported Barzani, signed the Agreement of Algiers with the Iraqi government and abandoned the Iraqi Kurds to their fate, as a result the Kurdish resistance virtually collapsed. In the years that followed, many of the achievements of the 1970's were whittled down by the Iraqi authorities. In view of the repeated brutal attacks on Kurdish civilians after the end of the Iran-Iraq war (e.g. The Gassing of Halabja) and the forced ressettlements of parts of the Kurdish population (1989), it seemed unlikely that the atmosphere in Iraq would be conducive to further attempts at independence or autonomy in the region. In 2003 the Americans, having been rejected by Turkey in their attempts to enter and occupy Iraq, bargained with the Kurds to gain entry. Although Saddam and his regime were toppled, the bloodshed, sectarian violence and civil war that followed continues today, and no end is in sight .

The end of this story has yet to be written. And many questions need to be answered and those having a part held responsible. In the meantime remember, educate yourself and those around you, knowledge is power, use that power for good (and to make the son's of bitches that played a role in this pay for their crimes.)

***Follow up.....

Sentences in Iraq Anfal trial By The Associated Press
Specific sentences and charges against the six former Saddam Hussein regime officials in the so-called Anfal trial in Iraq, according to the International Center for Transitional Justice:
• Ali Hassan al-Majid, Saddam Hussein's cousin, also known as "Chemical Ali." Five death sentences for genocide, willful killing, forced disappearances and extermination as crimes against humanity, and intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime. Multiple prison terms ranging from seven years to life for other inhumane acts.
• Sabir al-Douri, director of military intelligence. Three terms of life imprisonment for genocide, willful killing as a crime against humanity, and intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as a war crime. Ten years imprisonment for the destruction or seizing of the property of an adversary as a war crime.
• Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, the defense minister during the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003. Four death sentences for genocide, willful killing and extermination as crimes against humanity, and intentionally directing attacks against civilians as a war crime. Two terms of life imprisonment for forced disappearances and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity, as well as four other prison terms for deportation as a crime against humanity and three counts of war crimes.
• Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces. Sentenced to death for genocide, willful killing as a crime against humanity, and intentional attacks against the civilian population as a war crime. A term of seven years imprisonment for attacks against buildings dedicated to religious purposes.
• Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office. Sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide, and to life imprisonment and 10 years imprisonment for willful killing and deportation or forcible transfer as crimes against humanity.
• Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, former governor of Mosul and head of the Northern Affairs Committee. Charges were dropped for lack of evidence, as requested by the prosecution. 

An account by a man from Iraq:

In 1988, I was a student in Petrochimecal institute south Iraq, and we used to have 74 Kurdish students, I had 3 very close friends among them who used to teach me Kurdish language and I taught them arabic, One of them was Taymour and he was such a modest so respected person who went back to his city one day and didn't come back ... Did my best to find out about him but nothing worked, after 3 months someone showed up; a ghost that looks exactly like him, he was mute and can bearly see came back to see his friends and back to Kurdistan, I was asleep when I heard someone crying beside my bed .. opened my eyes to see him, I was speechless afraid to ask any questions when he broke that silence and told me that 39 family members and relatives of his were all killed in halabja, his dad, mum, brothers and sisters and when he came to tell me about his little 3 years old sister who her picture is with him all the time I couldn't hold up my tears and embraced him with all worlds sadness that my heart could feel. oh dear sister what a life we had, what memories we will live with and what future is waiting for us.
Kurds are in Syria as well and there are Shiite's Kurd as well in Iraq who had to migrate either to north or south after they were threatened due to sectarian purges made by Qaeda in Diala governarate. It's said that they come from the Arian race or Aari which is considered as the race poeple from Iran, Turkey and think Germany comes from ... I'm half Arian by the way half Samian hehehehe ... Arab comes from Samian race which is I guess jewish race too .. not sure but it would be an ironi.
well, I got more informations about this cursed country called iraq but you won't have to know about them cause it's disgusting only to mention that Saddam used chemichal weapons against Iranian army as well, killed about 10,000 soldiers and civilians in the so used to be called (Hasad Akbar) battle and that could tell why Iran has bad relationships with US and some other countries.

Lake In Kurdistan.

Another update March 9, 2009

Ali Hasan al-Majeed, a cousin of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator, has been tried on unrelated charges and found guilty, sentenced to death, for a third time. BUT, his execution has been postponed, for political reason rather than legal ones.

al-Majeed and his co-defendants are still in US custody in Iraq.




  Erbil  (aka: Hewler, Arbil)
Capital of Kurdistan