SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Co-president Bafel Talabani said on Tuesday they are concerned that remains of Halabja chemical attack’s wounds have not been healed yet.
Around 5,000 people, mostly women and children, were killed when the former regime of Saddam Hussein unleashed a cocktail of deadly gas on Halabja on March 16, 1988.
The genocide was one of many horrific crimes committed by the Baath regime under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship against the Kurdistan Region’s people.
The Halabja victims were among some 180,000 people killed during the regime’s “Anfal campaign” against the Kurds.
The attack still haunts Halabja as its residents, now estimated at around 200,000, still fight for justice, care for the ill and hunt for missing relatives.
“On this sad anniversary, we are worried that the remains of this wound have not been healed on the honorable families of martyrs, the wounded of chemical weapons and the Halabja city,” Talabani said in a statement.
“The Halabja chemical bombardment is one of the brutal crimes in human history and is a big perfidy carried out against the Kurdish nation,” he added.
The PUK “eagerly looks at the reconstruction of Halabja and serving its people,” the PUK co-leader stated.
“We will put our organs into service for Halabja and the Halabjis. We will pressure the government and related institutions to further reconstruct the city and further serve the wounded of the chemical weapon and the families of the martyrs.
“We should turn Halabja to the city of civilization and the identity of peaceful capital to the symbol of resistance, will and continuity.”
Talabani also pledged support for the people of Halabja.
