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Thousands of candles lit in Stockholm for
murdered Iraqi Kurds
17.3.2008
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March 17, 2008
STOCKHOLM, -- Thousands of candles were lit
in central Stockholm on Sunday in memory of around
5,000 Iraqi Kurds from Halabja massacred 20 years
ago in a chemical attack blamed on Saddam Hussein's
forces.
Some 500 people, many dressed in black, gathered in
a sunny Stockholm square under banners declaring
"Never again Halabja" as hundreds of black balloons
were released over the city.
"It is important to remember. Five thousand people
were murdered," 18-year-old Hamid Rahimzadeh told
AFP as he and his four-year-old cousin lit one of
the candles lining the steps leading down to the
Sergels torg square.
"This is not something you can just forget," agreed
Nawroz Zakholy, 15, who has lived in Sweden her
entire life but says her Kurdish parents still talk
about the massacre "constantly".
A number of prominent Swedish politicians were also
present at the demonstration commemorating the March
16, 1988 chemical attack on Halabja.
"The massacre in Halabja is one of the worst
occurrences that humanity has witnessed in modern
time," opposition Socialist Party leader Mona Sahlin
was quoted by the TT news agency as saying.
In neighbouring Norway,www.ekurd.net
around 500 people were
expected to take part in a torchlight procession
through central Oslo Sunday evening in memory of the
massacre, organisers said.
AFP
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