KurdistanObserver.com

Crackdown On Democracy In South Kurdistan

Dr. Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany

Switzerland

Mar 28, 2006

The events of 16th march 2006 in martyred Kurdish city of Halabja were shocking. It is a natural right of people in democratic societies to express their demands through public protests and demonstrations, even if some of those demonstrations gets out of control and turns into riots, as we have seen for example lately in France with riots of young French of North African or Arabic origins or the latest spade of protests by French students against newly proposed laws of employment. It is the duty of the police and security people on the other side to be trained in confrontation with demonstrations and riots and use utmost restraint in dealing with such issues, this needs training about the psychology of crowds and angry demonstrators.

The people of Halabja and specially the younger generations have every right to be disappointed about the performance of Kurdish authorities regarding reconstruction and rehabilitation of the city which was brutally attacked with chemical weapons by the criminal regime of Saddam Hussein on March 16th 1988, killing 5 thousands people within few hours and mutilating many other thousands. The city of Halabja has turned into a symbol of Kurdish suffering under Arab domination in Iraq and was recognized recently by Dutch legal authorities as an act of Genocide against Kurdish population in Iraq. The International community, which failed to condemn this heinous atrocity in 1988 because they were courting with Saddam Hussein then, have used Halabja (especially by the American administration) to justify the war on Iraq in March 2003 to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein.

The Kurdish authorities also used Halabja, and rightly so, to draw attention to the plight of Iraqi Kurds under the Arab rule of Saddam Hussein. The Kurdish authorities have erected a monument in Halabja  with a museum which depicted the pictures and belongings of the victims of 1988 chemical attack on Halabja, they promised  repeatedly to rebuild Halabja and  to compensate the remaining relatives of the fallen victims, something which they obviously not fulfilled, and this has reflected in the anger of demonstrators on March 16th 2006 which ended up with  Kurdish police and security forces shooting their own people with live ammunition killing one demonstrator and injuring dozens of others, which eventually  led  agitated crowds to storm and burn out the Halabja monument.

In the aftermath of this saddening incident and instead of recognizing the grievances of the people of Halabja and actually implementing steps to rebuild Halabja to be a modern new Kurdish city, they reacted in a totally bizarre and unacceptable way by  calling the demonstrators as traitors and agitators and starting a campaign of pursuit and arrest of those young people who took part in the demonstrations and even confiscating the  cameras of the journalists who managed to record the events with their cameras  in order to use them by security authorities to identify and arrest those participated in the demonstrations just like any police state!. 

The people of Halabja used their  constitutional right of demonstration after repeated pleas on Kurdish authorities to pay more attention to Halabja  have failed cities .The defunct prime minister of Kurdistan regional government ( Sulaimani administration), has said in a speech  to loyal crowds in Halabja after the incident  that they have already spent 105 million Dollars in projects in Halabja in the last three years, a very modest figure if we consider that the Budget of the Kurdistan Regional Government ( Sulaimani administration) in the last 3 years was over 6000 million Dollars, and this means less than 2% of that budget was allocated for Halabja, and one can imagine how much really of that 105 million Dollars were actually spent if we consider the mushrooming corruption in Kurdistan.

The crack down on Halabja demonstrators sent shock waves to Kurdish expatiates abroad and to many western governments which were hoping that Kurdistan could be a model of democracy for the rest of Iraq.

Halabja is the hearts and minds of every Kurd just like Kirkuk, Khanaquin, Shangal, Makhm our and it deserves a real attention, I call all Kurds to exert more pressure on Kurdish authorities to stop their crack down  and to open a free dialogue with the people of Halabja and to invest larger sums of money to rebuild Halabja and provide its inhabitants with basic services like electricity, fuel and water supply. Let Halabja not fall a prey in the hands of reactionary fundamentalists and instead let the authorities build a University in Halabja  which will expand the cultural and enlighten role of Halabja in Kurdistani society.

The rebuilding of the city of Halabja  will be the real monument for people of Halabja in particular and the people of Kurdistan in general.