Halabja, KRI. Inside the Halabja Monument and Peace Museum, Omed Hama Ali Rashid (48), is pointing at the names of the family members he lost on the 16th of March 1988 as a result of the chemical attack on the city of Halabja by Saddam Hussein's forces. Their names are written on the wall among the names of 5,000 other victims.
Halabja, a lingering trauma (2021)
Text by Bart von Laffert
33 years ago, in 1988, 5,000 people died in the chemical attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja carried out by Saddam’s army. The massacre is still not recognised as a genocide at an international level, while German and EU companies were also involved in providing Iraq with gas and products who made the attack possible.
Now, a group of survivors has decided to take them to court, after over a decade collecting evidence.
Halabja, KRI. Hundreds of tombstones at the Martyrs graveyard in Halabja commemorate the victims of the 16th of March 1988, when the chemical attack carried out by Saddam Hussein's forces killed between 3,200 and 5,000 civilians.
Halabja, KRI. Chro Taib Ali (43) shows the photos of the seven family members (her parents and siblings) she lost on the 16th of March 1988 as a result of the chemical attack on the city of Halabja by Saddam Hussein's forces. She is herself a survivor and was 10 at the time.
Halabja, KRI. Two girls are visiting the second room of the Halabja Monument and Peace Museum, that displays the “Merga Sat” (“moment of death” in Kurdish).
Halabja, KRI. Eight of the sixteen Kurdish flags on display in front of Halabja Monument and Peace Museum are waving in the wind. Below each flag, the original bombs that hit the city, are decorated with flowers as part of an art exhibition to commemorate the chemical attack that killed between 3,200 and 5,000 civilians on March 16th 1988.
Halabja, KRI. Hawkar Sabre Mohammad (36) is a survivor of the chemical attack that hit Halabja on the 16th of March 1988. He was three years old at the time. As a result of the chemicals he inhaled, he developed chronic bronchitis and has been dependent on a respirator since 2015. He is unemployed and lives with his daughter, who is 4 years old, and his wife.
Halabja, KRI. A one meter-deep paper box is filled with the empty medicine boxes that Hawkar Sabre Mohammad (36) took over the past year. Sabre is a survivor of the chemical attack that hit Halabja on the 16th of March 1988. Three years ago, he decided to start collecting the medicines he has to take to cope with long term consequences of the chemical attack, as a “living archive and proof” of the effect of chemical weapons.
Halabja, KRI. A group of old men, dressed in the traditional Kurdish clothes, at the market in downtown Halabja. All of them are survivors of the chemical attack that hit the city on March 16th 1988. One of them just said: "I did not get any reparation, even though I am a survivor. I am happy to be photographed, but I do not expect anything to change".
Halabja, KRI. The shadow of a tree behind a curtain in Halabja downtown. The city was hit by a chemical attack on March 16th 1988 and the collective trauma is still lingering. But as Omedy Zhyahawa, a survivor of the attack who was at first believed dead, there is always hope: “In summer the trees might burn, but spring always come back and brings new flowers”.
Halabja, KRI. Kwestan Akram Faraj (54), president of Halabja Municipality, at her country house in Ababil, over Halabja. On March 16th 1988 she was able to flee here with her family and survive the chemical attack that hit the city. She was called to testify at the trial against Saddam Hussein and Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid and she considers the day she was able to look them in the eyes and hold them accountable “the happiest day of her life”.
Halabja, KRI. Murad (2) and his mother in a park in Halabja are posing for pictures with their family members to celebrate Murad’s 2nd birthday. The city was hit by a chemical attack on March 16th 1988 and the collective trauma is still lingering.
Halabja, KRI. A photo of Aras Abid Akram, a survivor and deputy director of Halabja chemical victims society, holding a child is hung in his office at Save the Children KRG. Akram lost 26 family members in the chemical attack that hit Halabja on March 16th 1988. The child he is holding is the son of a local family helped by Save The Children. “I am holding the child high - he says - because there is nothing more important than children”.