16th March 1988 the town of Halabja was attacked with chemical weapons from the Iraqi regime’s fighter aircrafts. This caused the death of 5 000 innocent civilians and thousands of wounded. The town still struggles with the secondary damages of this attack. Agriculture is not possible since the earth still is contaminated, and every year several children are born with deformities. This has also affected the business in the town, and even though the situation for Kurds in Iraq now is better than under the rule of Saddam Hussein, Kurds are still to a great degree dependent on help from outside to survive.

SOS Racism has for long been a driving force to get Norwegian authorities to recognize Anfal – the comprehensive campaign against Kurds in Iraq from 1987 to 1989 – as genocide. More than 182 000 civilians lost their lives in the attacks committed by the forces of Saddam Hussein. We asked Kareem how this struggle was developing.

- At the moment we are actively working with the government in Baghdad to get the responsible for the massacres prosecuted and sentenced. This will not only make the job easier to get Anfal recognized as genocide in the UN, but will also help survivors and kins to get compensation, Kareem tells when SOS Racism asks what is done today to get Anfal recognized as genocide.

- We also have a good documentation on which countries sold chemical weapons to Saddam’s regime, these are also co-responsible for the abuse of Kurds in Iraq in this period, the mayor states.

International cooperation

Kurdish Group in SOS Racism has done a lot of work to put focus on Kurdish questions in Norway, and SOS Racism as organisation has a long time worked to get Norwegian authorities to recognise Anfal as genocide against Kurds.

- What happened in Kurdistan is in principle different than Holocaust; the difference was the absence of war. Kurds were killed only because they were Kurds. That is the same that happened to Jews and Romani people during World War II – just to a lesser extinct. Kareem tells that they have a broad basis of contacts to get Anfal recognised as genocide. And the work is carried out not only in Norway.

- Also in several other countries Kurds in exile are working together with human rights organisations to achieve this goal. In addition to this we in Halabja also have contacts among others with people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (the cities bombed with atomic weapons in August 1945) who have similar goals they want to achieve.

- The world has got to know what has happened

We ask why this is so important for Kurds and for the town of Halabja – the misdeeds were after all carried out more than twenty years ago.

- First of all the world has got to know what has happened. We want it not to happen again, and then knowledge about what actually happened is essential. As I said earlier, this happened only because we are Kurds, not for other reasons, Kareem states.

- Secondly this is important to get compensations, so that the areas can get to stand again economically. The situation in Halabja today is completely different from what it was before the massacres – it is no longer any basis for agriculture since the earth still is contaminated, and no one wants to put investments into the areas. Today people live from stately transfers, by economical donations from Kurds living other places in the world and to a lesser extinct from trade.

The Kurds are still experiencing a desperate situation in Iraq. 1500 towns and villages were completely destroyed in the attacks, and the infrastructure still is in ruins.

- The difference between the Kurdish areas in Iraq and the rest of Iraq is still great. To travel between the two parts of Iraq can be compared with the difference between Western and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, Kareem explains.

- Still a lot of work has to be done until the situation for the Kurds in Iraq is normalized. Even though we have regional authorities to govern Northern Iraq, there is still a long way to go before the situation for Kurds are acceptable since a lot of the problems still are unsolved.

Norway can contribute

The mayor means that Norway can contribute to peace and stability for the Kurds in Iraq – Norway has a long tradition for peace and democracy.

- We need Norwegian help to build our own democracy, Kareem tells us.

In addition to this, Norway can contribute in other ways.

- Since Norway not is a member of the European Union, you are in a much better position when it comes to foreign politics. Norway can do a good job in international organs to get Anfal recognised as genocide, something which will be positive for us both economically and psychologically, Khder Kareem ends.