Kurdish Genocide

In responding to the Kurdish guerrilla groups in northern Iraq, the then President Saddam Hussein made a test of its chemical weapons on local Kurdish people on 16 March 1988, right before the end of Iran-Iraq War, by releasing multiple chemical agents including mustard gas, the nerve agents Sarin and tabun which directed to the civilian-populated residential area in here, the town where I’m standing now – Halabja. 5000 people have been found dead in a number of ways – ‘just dropped head’, died of laughing, dying in a few minutes after coughing up green vomit, etc. 7000 to 10,000 people injured and thousands more died of complications, diseases and birth defects at the post-genocide period.

Despite its darkest moment, Halabja is now a little dusty town with rows of workshop, grocery shop and restaurant as well as markets. I really couldn’t tell when a local asked me what I think about Halabja.

Halabja town

While it took me a bit of efforts to locate the Genocide Museum & Peace Monument, the photos in the museum appeared to be disturbing. It reminded me of the genocide in Nanjing, China carried out by the Japanese during the World War II though the scale of the latter is incomparable.  

Genocide Museum & Peace Monument