Tragedy of Halabja: March 16, 1988

On March 16th, 1988, the city of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan became the site of the largest scale chemical attack on a civilian population in history. That morning, Iraqi warplanes flew over the city and dropped chemical bombs on the thousands of unsuspecting people living there. At least 5,000 people died immediately (75% of them women and children) as a result of the chemical attack and it has been estimated that a further 7,000 people were injured or suffered long-term illnesses. Still today, victims of the chemical weapons used in the region during that time continue to die decades after their exposure.

The city was unprepared for such an attack that morning as was evident by the many children who were busy in the streets playing their usual games. Little did they suspect that Iraqi fighter jets would soon swoop low over Halabja dropping chemical weapons and would continue to bomb the city twenty times for almost one hour. When the bombs struck the city, many died instantly while others tried to escape not knowing that the stench of rotten apples they smelled was the poison gas that was heavier than the air they breathed.

As one Kurdish intellect, Kendal Nezan, described Halabja:

"The scene that greeted them in the morning defied description. The streets were strewn with corpses. People had been killed instantaneously by chemicals in the midst of the ordinary acts of everyday life. Babies still sucked their mothers’ breasts. Children held their parents’ hands, frozen to the spot like a still from a motion picture. In the space of a few hours 5,000 people had died. The 3,200 who no longer had families were buried in a mass grave."

    

The attack on Halabja took place during Saddam's infamous Anfal Campaign; a genocidal campaign designed to annihilate the Kurdish population in Iraq with details that are relatively unknown to the world. Halabja was not the first Kurdish settlement to be attacked with chemical weapons but was the site of the largest attack. Throughout 1987, Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist Regime were said to have attacked at least 40 different villages or towns with chemical weapons. Very sadly, the world remained silent as Saddam Hussein carried out his atrocities against the Kurds. In fact, even with prior knowledge of Saddam's usage of chemical weapons, the United States continued to provide Iraq with the technology. Saddam's allies at the time refrained from condemning any of the attacks because of Iraq's war with Iran.

The words of Hassan Ali al-Majid or 'Chemical Ali', a cousin of Saddam Hussein who was appointed head of the Northern Iraqi Bureau to carry out the campaign, were almost symbolic in describing the silence of the international community when he responded to a question about the massacres he ordered:

"I will kill them [the Kurds] all with chemical weapons. Who is going to say anything? The international community? To hell with them all!"

The Anfal Campaign resulted in the killings of nearly a quarter of a million Kurds in Iraq and the Tragedy of Halabja became a symbol of the worst repression against the Kurds. The single incident left thousands dead, and 20 years later, the memories of the attacks remain fresh in the minds of those who survived it.

Today, activists continue to seek international attention for the atrocities that continue to be committed against Kurdish populations throughout the Middle East. Unfortunately, in many cases, such atrocities continue to remain ignored and much of the world continues to remains silent.