Iraqs Halabja declared a new governorate

The Iraqi government has declared Halabja, a region notorious for one of the worst chemical weapon attacks in history, a new governorate.

Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid offered his “warmest congratulations” to the people of Halabja over the move, which was passed in the Iraqi parliament on Monday.

“We see this historic step as a long-awaited justice and a positive step towards achieving justice and retribution for the blood of the martyrs who fell in the most heinous crime known to modern history,” Rashid said, in a statement published by the state-run Iraqi News Agency

The attack on Halabja, which killed as many as 5,000 people in a matter of hours on 16 March 1988, was carried out by then ruler Saddam Hussein as part of the Anfal campaign against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq.

Anfal has been characterised as a genocide, with Kurdish sources saying that as many as 182,000 people were killed during the course of the campaign.

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Halabja was split from Sulaymaniyah province, which is under the authority of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Legislation to establish Halabja as a separate government was approved by the Iraqi cabinet in 2013. However, ongoing political disputes between Baghdad and the KRG have prevented its implementation.

The KRG itself recognised Halabja as a separate province in 2014, without Baghdad's approval.

Halabja mayor and acting governor Nuxsha Nasih told Rudaw on Monday that she extended her “warm congratulations to the entirety of the Kurdish nation” and “to the families of the martyrs of Halabja”.

She said the establishment of the governorate meant that the victims of the Halabja massacre “are today at peace”.

Many survivors of the Halabja massacre have complained that they have not received adequate physical or psychological assistance from the state in the decades following the attack.

A study carried out in 2018 that interviewed a cross section of Halabja survivors found that all those interviewed had "no, or only poor, access to healthcare services and limited access to specialist care".

It also found that "all reported [a] lack of financial resources to obtain treatment".

There have also been calls from the KRG and relatives of those killed for restitution from Baghdad and the return of their loved ones' remains

Masoud Barzani, former KRG president and leader of the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KGP), on Monday said there was a need for Baghdad to provide support for the relatives and survivors of Halabja.

“The criminals ended up with the dustbin of history, but the wounds and tragedies of genocide and injustice are still sunken and have not yet been depleted," he said.

"The Iraqi state must perform its duty to compensate for the crime of the Anfal and the genocide that was committed against our people."

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