Survival Instinct: Halabja8217;s Lessons

Fifteen years ago, this remote Kurdish town near the Iranian border entered the world8217;s lexicon of modern-day horrors. First, Iraqi war...

Fifteen years ago, this remote Kurdish town near the Iranian border entered the world8217;s lexicon of modern-day horrors. First, Iraqi warplanes bombarded the enclave for several hours. Then, at about 2 pm, they swooped lower.

8216;8216;We smelled something rotten, and when we breathed in, we couldn8217;t breathe out,8217;8217; said Wais Abdel Qadr, a gaunt man of 30 with a deep and chronic cough. 8216;8216;The sky was full of smoke, and someone said it was chemicals. People started crying and running toward the mountains. I was burning and I became blind, but someone led me out. After walking for two days, we reached Iran.8217;8217; He was the only member of his family to survive the gassing of Halabja by the Iraqi military on March 16, 1988.

Basra protests flare over petrol, power cuts
BASRA: British troops in riot gear were deployed in Basra to quell spreading disturbances over shortages of petrol and power on Saturday in Iraq8217;s second city, a British military spokesman said. Witnesses said angry Iraqis threw stones, attacked Kuwaiti-registered cars and burned tyres. The spokesman said violence broke out at at least four petrol stations. 8212;Reuters

About 5,000 people perished in the attack that revealed the ruthlessness of Saddam Hussein. Now that he has been driven from power, Halabja8217;s 50,000-odd residents can finally breathe freely again.

Though dozens of blocks lie in ruin and hundreds of residents still suffer from effects of the gassing, there is an atmosphere of relief in the streets and an unabashed pro-Americanism that has lingered long after people in other parts of Iraq have soured on the US military presence.

8216;8216;Saddam wanted to kill us all, but now he8217;s gone,8217;8217;said 35-year-old Jamil Azad. His brother8217;s family escaped to Iran and then Sweden after the 1988 attack, and he was eager to send them a message.

8216;8216;Please tell them Halabja is safe now,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;It8217;s all right to come home.8217;8217; Halabja is firmly under the sway of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK after the 1991 War. The PUK contributed guerrilla fighters to topple Saddam in April. But the town is also home to several militant Islamic groups that once violently battled the PUK and that still make many residents uneasy.

Despite Saddam8217;s fall, Halabja is very much a place in mourning. Virtually every family here lost a relative in the gassing, and the main cemetery is full of large, grassy plots where entire clans are buried.

Story continues below this ad

The town8217;s major landmark is a stark white monument to the dead. Inside is a plaster tableau of lifelike victims frozen as they fell, covered with chemical ash and cradling their children for protection.

The 1988 attack, in which Saddam8217;s bombers dropped a mixture of nerve and mustard gases, occurred near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, in which some Kurdish guerrilla groups fought on the Iranian side.

The incident spurred an outpouring of aid from around the world that rebuilt schools, clinics, houses and orphanages. Yet officials complained that it fell far short of what was needed to rebuild their town or bring back thousands of inhabitants who fled abroad.

8216;8216;Halabja was once a beautiful and historic place. We had famous poets, and we took many heroic stands,8217;8217; said Jamil Abdulrahman Mohammed, the mayor. 8216;8216;But over the years we have had so many martyrs, so many missing, so many who ran away. You cannot rebuild the spirit of a place with bricks.8217;8217; 8212;LAT-WP