SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi Council of Representatives voted on Monday to commit the federal government to complete all necessary procedures for declaring Halabja as a governorate.
On the anniversary of Halabja chemical attack, the Iraqi parliament decided by majority of votes to oblige the federal government to take necessary steps to declare Halabja as Iraq’s nineteenth governorate.
Halabja was designated a province by the Iraqi government in 2013, but the decision needed to be approved by the parliament to take effect.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) approved Halabja as a new governorate in on March 13, 2014. The Kurdistan Region’s President decided to turn Halabja to a new governorate on the anniversary of the Halabja massacre in the same year.
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.
