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The Memorial
4.6.2006
By Dana Kadir, Writer from Australia, Sydney. Opinion.
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Dana Kadir, (ekurd.net) July 4, 2006
The Kurdish Memorial Martyrs of the city of Halabja
(South Kurdistan/Iraqi-Kurdistan). Who was behind
the conspiracy to set a fire at the Memorial and to
burn it down?
On the 16th of March 1988, a few days before Newroz
(The Kurdish New Year), the former Iraqi government
bombarded the city of halabja. First, the city was
bombarded by war air-crafts and helicopters in order
to destroy the entire city. The bombardment made the
people of the city without shelters to hide
themselves against further attacks. On the same day
more than 30 helicopters and other war air-crafts
dropped chemical weapons on the Kurdish town of
Halabja, according to eye witnesses. I believe more
than 5000 men, women and children died instantly
without being engaged in a fight against the former
regime. These types of aggressive operations by the
former Iraqi regime had been repeated over and over
in the past against the Kurds in the villages and
the country towns for so many months during
1987-1989.
For the first time a mixture of chemical weapons
were used against a large population. Even many
years after the attack the chemicals affected
people’s eyes and respiratory and neurological
systems. Many of them went blind and received skin
cancer, miscarriages and infant deaths. According to
Christine Gosden the finding of serious congenital
malformations with genetic causes occurring in
children born many years after the human tragedy
suggested that the effects of these chemicals
warfare agents are transmitted to succeeding
generations.
It is very obvious, that the former dictator Saddam
and its regime continued in the past to commit
crimes against the Kurds and humanity and they are
still doing it by killing hundreds of innocent
people and foreigners on a daily base. I believe
more than 10,000 people were killed in Iraq since
the collapse of the regime. A question always comes
in to my mind which is, who is behind the killings
of all innocent people? The answer is very straight
forward, nobody except Al-Qaida, Saddam’s former
Arab Baath Socialist Party, Iran, Syria and other
countries such as, Turkey.
These countries who rule their own people ironically
hand and fire, in order to brain wash uneducated
people by the knowledge of Islam. In 1987-1988, the
former regime abducted 300,000 Kurdish men, women,
and children even blind people during infamous Anfal
operations, the campaigns against the Kurds
(unbelievers). An Anfal is a name of a sura in the
Koran. This name was given to a concerted series of
military offensives, which conducted in 6 distinct
Kurdish geographic areas during the year of 1988.
Even some of the children were sold for 2 or 3 Iraqi
Dinnars in the city of Kerkuk and other cities in
South of Iraq. The former bloody regime was the
owner of these genocide and many more crimes. The
Kurds were devastated and agitated by the genocide
of 1988, Anfal campaign, which destroyed more than
4500 villages.
The former dictator added to its infamous history
another terrible crime and used 5000 Faili Kurds
during his chemical and biological experiments in
September 1980, according to the British daily
Independent. After all the tragedies that Kurds had
been through, the Memorial of Halabja was built by
the Regional Kurdish Government as a symbol of
Halabja and for all the Kurds were genocide in the
town, and for the sake of our martyrs. It is a
symbol of dignity towards our nation. When 5000
innocent people were killed by the former dictator.
They were killed because they were Kurds nothing
else. Today that symbol has burnt down by the enemy
of peace, democracy and humanity, by those dirty and
narrow minded people, which called themselves, Ansar
Al-Sunna. This terrorist organisation is working for
economic benefit, and they have been hired by
foreigners to commit crimes such as, Al-Qaida the
terrorist extremist organisation.
On Thursday 16th of March 2006, students of the city
started protesting against the local government in
order for their demand to be taken into
consideration. I believe that the authority has
promised before to fulfil their demands of the
people of Halabja, but their demands have been
ignored for years and they have gained a little. For
example the economic boom has taken place in other
parts of Kurdistan but not in Halabja. The city
lacks some basic services such as water and
electricity. All promises by foreign and especially
Kurdish politicians were broken. Money was not
invest in order to improve and provide local
services or give compensations to the
victims’famalies and the survivors, create jobs for
unemployed locals, the construction of the town has
not been completed, and there is not enough health
care also to help the people of Halabja and the new
patients. Even Mr. Paul Bremer the US administrator
in Iraq who visited Halabja in 2004, and also the US
Secretary of State Mr. Colin Powell had dropped by
in September 2003 to draw attention to both
brutality of the past regime and its use of chemical
weapons. But the people said local and foreign
officials have used the atrocities for their own
political ends and people have not seen much. The
factors I have identified caused the citizens to
create such anger and violence in the city against
the authority.
Unfortunately that peaceful demonstration has
changed its direction into uncivilized demonstration
because some of the dirty minded people like the
extremist militant from Islamic group of Ansar Al-Sunna
got into the demonstration and went amongst the
protesters and had hidden themselves and set fire on
the memorial (monument) and our symbol was burnt. It
was very sad and a shame to see the photographs of
the victims and the glass cases which contained
clothes and other things of the dead display which
was burning. I believe the authority is also
responsible for not preparing well for such a
demonstration in Halabja and the Monument would have
been protected better than that. In order to do so
such violence would have been avoided.
In addition to that, on 17th March 2006, police had
arrested a militant from the same terrorist group
between the Iran-Iraq borders, as I mentioned
previously. He confessed that he came to Kurdistan
to blow himself up during the ceremony marking the
18th anniversary of the chemical attack that killed
more than 5000 Kurds. This extremist group aims to
establish an Islamic fundamentalist state in Iraq.
This fanatic group claimed that they attacked on
Kurdish area and kidnapped people in Kurdistan.
I believe that Iran supports this group and
terrorism against the wishes of Kurdish and other
liberated nationalities. They are also against
democratic and freedom of speech and want to stay
Kings in the region forever on the account of other
nationalities and exporting Islamic fundamentalist
groups to the other areas in the Middle East and to
the rest of the world. For example, supporting the
other Islamic fanatic groups such as Hamas against
the state of Israel.
The Iranian regime has not stopped their threat
against the State of Israel, days after that; it has
been announced by the Iranian leader that the
uranium has been developed successfully. The Iranian
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Israel
threats the Middle East permanently and that will be
soon liberated. He added and said at the opening of
a conference in support to the Palestinians that
“the Zionist is heading toward annihilation”. “It
will be finished by one storm”. He had also said in
the past that Israel should be “wiped off the map”.
The Iranian president did not mention how and when
he will librate Palestinians’ land. The Iranian
leader Ahmadinejad while he visited the Islamic
university and told more than 1000 Muslims students
during his visit to Indonesia on 11th May 2006, the
Iranian leader was attacking at the state of Israel
again and saying that Israel a “tyrannical Regime”
and this attack was not the first time but he
threatened Israel in the past as well.
It is also the current leader of the Iranian regime
Ahmadinejad had committed a crime against Kurdish
people in Eastern Kurdistan (Kurdistan of Iran), by
involving and planning to kill his rival Dr.
Kassimlo the Kurdish KDP leader in 13 July 1989.
While the Kurdish Democratic Party was in
negotiation with the Iranian Regime in order to
grant self determination to the Kurds in Eastern
Kurdistan (Kurdistan of Iran). I would like to talk
about that negotiation briefly between the Iranian
delegations and the Kurdish Democratic Party
delegations including Dr. Kassimlo, the leader of
the party in the city of (Vienna) in Europe.
Jalal Talabani the current President of the Iraqi
Government and the leader of the (PUK) in December
1988 After informed Kassimlo that the Iranian
Government was interested in talking with Kurdish
Democratic Party, after that, the first meeting
started between Iran and Kurdish Democratic Party
with the knowledge of the parties politburo were
arranged. In January 1989 Second meeting of the
talks between Iran and KDP with the knowledge of the
parties’ politburo was held. The Iranian Government
in March 1989 discontinued the dialogue with KDP.
Kassimlo heard that Iran wished to resume talks
again. The Third rounds of the talks started in 12
July 1989 between Iran and KDP with the presence of
Dr. Kassimlo in Vienna and it was kept secret from
the party. Dr Abdelrahman Qassemlo, 59, leader of
the KDP was assassinated in Vienna in 13 July 1989,
during the 2 days negotiations with Iranian
Government.
Dr Abdelrahman Kassimlo was accompanied by his
deputy Abdullah Ghaderi-Azar, and Fadhil Rasoul, a
Vienna-based Iraqi Kurd serving as a mediator and
was talking in a borrowed apartment with Iranian
interior-ministry official Mohammed Jaafari
Sahraroudi and Hadji Moustafavi, a.k.a. Ladjeverdi,
an intelligence operative. A third Iranian, Amir
Mansour Bozorgian, stood guard at the door. All the
Kurdish representatives were killed in the meeting,
only Sahraroudi was injured. The Kurdish Democratic
Party does not believe in a military solution for
Iranian Kurdistan and will continue to explore
political avenues. After kassimmlo's assassination,
a senior Komal member in August 1989 was
assassinated in Larnaca. Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1989
became the Iranian president. Sahraroudi was said to
be very close to Rafsanjani. November 1989, a few
months after the crime, the Austrian state
prosecutor issued arrest for Sahraroudi, Bozorgian
and Moustafavi. Police made a show of cordoning off
the Iranian embassy in Vienna on the theory that
Bozorgian might still be holed up there, but the
cordon later on was withdrawn. Sahraroudi was taken
to the embassy on July 21 1989, after he recovered
from his bullet wound. On the following day
Sahraroudi was accompanied by police towards airport
and flew to Tehran. Sahraroudi has since been
promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the
Iranian Revolutionary for participating and
committing a crime against the Kurdish leader. Here,
I would like to condemn the role of the Austria’s
Government by rescuing a criminal Sahraroudi and
covering his crime against the KDPI leader. The
Government should have taken Sahraroudi before
justice not to send him to Tehran.
It is also the deputy of the same party Dr. Sheref
Kendy with his fellows got assassinated and was shot
dead in a restaurant in Germany. That is the history
of the regime in the past and continues to the 21st
of the century and to the new mellinum and nothing
has changed for the better, instead everything is
becoming much worse.
I believe that the regime is propaganda for itself
to show how the Iranian Government loves Middle
Eastern people and uses an Islamic name for the sake
of Islam, but I believe what the Iranian president
said is just vice versa. The regime uses Islam and
Muslims as a game to brain wash Muslims and to get
their support in case if the regime goes in to war
with the United Nation or US, and its allies. If
what he is saying is true! Why the Iranian
Government wants to free Palestinians and the land
of Palestine, but won’t free its own people and the
lands of others such as Kurds, Azeri, Arminians and
Arabs. This clearly shows the hypocrisy of the
regime and its discrimination against the other
nationalities. I believe that the Iranian Regime is
a permanent threat to the region not Israel.
The Iranian Republic of Islam established on the
Kurdish land from west of Iran. Kurdistan was
divided in 1923 and since our land has been occupied
and all the nationalities have been suppressed by
the occupier. The regime is almost like a wolf and
wearing a skin of sheep and hides everything under
it. Why does the Iranian president not ask himself
this question, who lived in the Middle East before
Arab Muslims? On the other hand, I believe that Iran
is not going to use civilian nuclear power to get
electricity but the regime will develop a nuclear
bomb in the future according to Israeli military
intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin. I believe the
regime is going to use its nuclear power against its
neighbours, and the first target it will be the
State of Israel.
Finally, I believe the Kurdish Regional Government
should reconsider the demands of the people
seriously in the region of Halabja and the other
areas of Kurdistan in order to avoid such a tragedy
in the future. The Regional Government should
deliver the basic services and create more projects
not just for the people of Halabja but for the whole
region. In order our Regional Government to survive;
it must restore its legitimacy by reconnecting with
the civil development society which the Government
tries to create. The authority should not let such
an opportunity to be used by the enemy of democracy
and freedom to destroy the relationship between
citizens of Kurdistan and the Regional Government.
The Kurdish Regional Government is also should not
tolerate this type of a crime against our nation and
those criminals should be brought to justice.
Over all, I believe that Tehran’s nuclear weapon is
a threat to international peace and security of the
world according to USA, Britain, France and other
permanent members of UN. The Iranian Nuclear Program
falls under chapter 7 of the UN Charter, ‘If Iran
does not comply with the international community
over its enrichment of uranium and does not suspend
its uranium enrichment operations and continuously
refuses to participate with UN resolution. The
international community should take
a new measurement in order to punish Iran by
breaking diplomatic relations to economic sanctions
and military action at the end if required’.
I would like also to condemn the conspiracy of the
Iranian regime and undemocratic Government of Turkey
by joining their troops and spreading their armies
across the Kurdish border by attacking and shelling
at the Kurdish villages and the bases of the (PKK),
the Kurdish freedom fighters that fight in order to
free and liberate the North Kurdistan (Eastern of
Turkey).
Finally, I would also like to point out this image
of a 8 years child. He was caught in one of the
markets in Iran for stealing bread because he was
hungry, instead of the child being looked after and
offering the child food as he was poor, he was
punished very harshly and the men’s regime ran a
vehicle over his arm in order to give this child a
lesson. What kind of religion and under which law,
allows an 8 year old child to be punished savagely?
If this child is guilty of stealing a loaf of bread,
the regime should be punished everyday by committing
crimes everyday against Iranian people in particular
against humanity in general. The image of the child
can be seen in the second attachment, please view.
Bibliography
The Sydney Morning Herald, 14/03/1998, Kurdish
Hell of Cancers and despair , by Christine Gosden.
The Independent: 5000 Faili Kurds were used as
lab-rats, by Kurdish Media dated on 15/12/2002.
Kurdish would-be suicide bomber held in
Kurdistan-Iraq, published by Kurdish Media, dated on
17/03/2006.
Iran President Again Lashes Out at Israel, By Ali
Akbar Dareini, Associate Press Writer, dated on
19.04.2006.
Halabja must mean a new beginning, by Rob Cole,
dated on 20.03.2006.
Iran’s President Says Nuke Talks Possible, By Niniek
karmini, Associated Press Writer, dated on Thursday
May, 11 2006, Indonesia.
The Tragedy of Halabja Twelve Years Later, By Shahin
Sorekli, Australia.
Conflict between Kurds and Iran Past 20 Years:
1978-98. By Siamak R. Durroei/KurdishMedia.com,
03/01/1998.
Dana Kadir, Australia, June 4, 2006
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