What Really has happened in Halabja and The Racism of so-called Arab Intellectuals towards Kurds and the Kurdistan: The case of Mr. Mohammed Al Obaidi

By: Hadi ELIS

Jan 2, 2005

I am writing in response to the twisted and distorted truth on Halabja by Mohammed Al Obaidi, and his disgraceful behavior against Kurdish Genocide.

What happened in Kurdish Halabja.

By Mohammed al-Obaidi

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ECD352BE-6B8F-449F-8F97-C7AB0DC08A94.htm

Wednesday 22 December 2004, 16:45 Makka Time, 13:45 GMT

The truth of what happened in Halabja had always been hidden from the public, and many who knew exactly what happened in this Kurdish village in the second half of March 1988 disputed the western media coverage of the story.

This is the abstract given at the beginning of the article written by the author above, and it shows how much an Arab intellectual -Mr. Mohammed al-Obaidi in our case- might know on Kurds.

Mr. Al-Obaidi starting with wrong information on Halabja, which Halabja was not and is not a village. Halabja was and is a large Town. If not so, the Racist Baath Army was not able to kill 5000 people and injured the 9000 people by the poisonous Chemical Gasses.  A simple and quick check at www.google.com will give enough entries to spend weeks about this subject.

Mr. Al Obaidi himself is an Arab from so-called Iraq, and if he knows this little fact so outrageously wrong on Kurds and Kurdistan, how I can expect him to tell the truth in the rest of the article.

From the following paragraph it becomes clear that his real purpose is to attack Jews, The West and the Kurds.  He acts like one of those a Sunni Arab with a knife looking for one of us to be beheaded. His anger is pushing him to lie, falsify and discriminate about Kurds, Genocide and an attempt to clean Arab people’s guilt in the Kurdish question.

Although he seeks the help of western sources, they are not there to help him to strengthen his argument such as using the figures of one another anti-Kurd and a denier of Kurdish Genocide, Mr. Stephen Pelletiere which many Kurdish activist are familiar with his writings.

I just want to quote Leo Casey from his article on,  "Questioning Halabja: Genocide and the Expedient Political Lie", (Dissent Magazine, Summer 2003, page 61-65)  -“It was this context that produced the extent of Kurdish genocide denial, --a 1988 DIA report suggesting that Iran, not Iraq, was responsible for the use of poison gas at Halabja...None of the authors of these documents, the most notable of which was Stephen Pelletiere the senior CIA political analyst of Iraq during the Anfal campaigns and later professor at the Army War College; had any expertise in medical and forensic sciences, and their speculation doesn't stand up to minimal scrutiny.…”

For both Mr. Pelletiere and Mr. Al Obaidi Mustard Gas and Nerve Agent Gas are not enough to perpetuate Genocide in killing the people in large numbers. I guess they never heard or read the definition of Genocide.  In Mr. Al Obaidi’s words  “Pelletiere's report also said that international relief organizations that examined the Kurdish refugees in Turkey failed to discover any gassing victims. After 15 years of support to the allegations of HRW, the CIA finally admitted in its report published in October 2003 that only mustard gas and a nerve agent was used by Iraq.  Also about “Pelletiere's report also said that international relief organizations that examined the Kurdish refugees in Turkey failed to discover any gassing victims.”

This is the funniest part that I read so far. Which International Relief Agency had receive the permission from the Racist Turkish State at that time, and which Doctors examined the victims and released the REPORT on the victims, other than the Turkish ones.

 While attacking Kurds, Jews and the West at the mean time choosing Turkey as an ally in this argument makes his position clearly and strongly anti-Kurdish, and pro-Saddam, and a supporter of a Genocide against Kurdish people. As he mentions in the end of his article which I will quote as it is  -“ Despite the doubt cast by many professionals as well as the CIA's recent report, and after years of public relations propaganda made for the Kurdish leaderships by the assistance and support of the Israeli Mossad, the issue of genocide has been marketed to the international community.

In a telephone interview with the Village Voice in 2002, Stephen Pelletiere said: "There is to this day the belief - and I'm not the only one who holds it - that things did not happen in Halabja the way Goldberg wrote it.

"And it is an especially crucial issue right now. We say Saddam is a monster, a maniac who gassed his own people, and the world should not tolerate him. But why? Because that is the last argument the US has for going to war with Iraq."
 

Wait a minute here Mr. Al Obaidi, if you believe the Kurdish Genocide is marketed to the international community by anyone, you take it as a BAD thing. Are you a human being ?

How dare you deny the Kurdish Genocide? Of course unless you are one of the pro-Saddam, pro- BAATH who is just being safe in the UK.

Again on the issue of Turkey in the Halabja question, NO single western NGO has given permission to investigate the Kurdish refugees’ health and other issues while they were under Turkish inhumane rule. Not a single Arab NGOs too, for your information.

Please do not lie, and if you want to lie get it from somewhere with really good credit.

With a simple few lines you think you will discredit HRW, Kurdish activists, Kurdish Leadership, WKI, Dr. Kendal Nezan, Dr. Najmaddin Karim, etc.

I can only say shame on you calling yourself a University professor.

From the starts Mr. Al Obaidi is forcing the names, events, dates and places to come together for his unfortunate attempt to clear the Saddam and the Baath Racists’ name from the Kurdish Genocide.

Foolishly he is trying to make us believe that Mr. Moti Zaken, -an honorable intellectual - is the person behind the establishment of the Washington Kurdish Institute, and Morris Amitay, and Mike Amitay- both honorable intellectuals- , and others. Every person who has some knowledge around this issue will falsify your misinformation supplied by Arab intelligence organizations and the Turkish MIT.

Mr. Al Obaidi needs to double-check his sources before publishing them to discredit himself. Mr. Al Obaidi would you please go check to find out how many Arab universities has a Kurdology department or an Institute for Kurdish Studies. For example Cairo or Jeddah or Sana or Khartoum etc Kurdish Studies Institute. It is a shame for an Arab Intellectual not to find a Kurdish institute or Kurdology department in Arab world.

If few honest westerners -Jews included- are involved in academic and scientific studies on Kurds and Kurdistan one should be happy and appreciative. Let see where are the Kurdish study centers, Berlin, Paris, New York, Brussels, Stockholm, Washington, etc .

At the times of Kurdish Genocide, Lingucide, Cultural and Historical Heritage destroying, forced assimilation and State Terrorist Policies and practices in Kurdistan the establishment of these centers are very crucial for the survival of the Kurdish Nation.  Of course as someone supporting all of the above you should not care for the well being of the Kurdish Nation, if not why you shall involve in Denial of Halabja. Mr. Al Obaidi makes it clear that why he is writing a book on Halabja, to deny the Kurdish Genocide.

Although it is very sad to see a University Professor like Mr. Al Obaidi involved in this politics of Denial of Kurdish Genocide, it is not a surprise for a Kurdish activist like myself to see a Racist Arab intellectual in this dirty plan.

Of course it will be very logical too to blame Iran too in this issue, for Mr. Al Obaidi who traditionally sees Iran as an enemy, and who thinks he will shot two birds with one stone in his own little mind. I am definitely not saying that Iran is innocent in the Kurdish Genocide. Iran is as guilty as Saddam and Baathists in the Kurdish Genocide.

Mr. Al Obaidi, you must apologize to the Survivors of Halabja, or you will be remembered as someone involved with his pen in the Kurdish Genocide.