KRG Rejects Declaring Halabja Chemical Attack Anniversary as Holiday

PUKMEDIA

Halabja Monument.

Iraq has declared the anniversary of the chemical attack on Halabja a holiday, but the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) says the anniversary is not a holiday.

"We are concerned about the decision of the KRG to reject declaring the day of the chemical attack on Halabja as an official holiday, while it is an official holiday in all Iraqi provinces," Chro Hama Sharif, MP of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), told PUKMEDIA.

"We expected the KRG and the Prime Minister to recall this bitter anniversary with us with providing services, projects and assistance to the families of the martyrs," she added.

"Unfortunately, they do not think it is right to declare a day when 5,000 people were martyred an official holiday,” Sharif said.

"We expected the prime minister to summon all ministers to Halabja on that day and participate in the mourning ceremony in the city in his own presence, but it is worrying that the issue is being politicised," she said.

The KRG has postponed the payment of the martyrs' heirs' February salaries to Sunday, 16 March 2025, the anniversary of the chemical attack on Halabja. Although the mayor of Halabja had requested to pay the salaries of the heirs of martyrs sooner, because most of the heirs of martyrs participate in the anniversary of the chemical attack on Halabja, but the KRG Ministry of Finance refused the request

Sharif said in this regard: "The KRG's intention has been clear from the beginning. The government has set 16 March for the distribution of the salaries of the heirs of the martyrs, so that there is no holiday on that day."

On 16 March 1988, the fallen Iraqi Ba'ath regime bombed the city of Halabja with banned chemical weapons, martyring over 5000 innocent Kurdish civilians, including women, children, and the elderly. The attack also injured more than 10,000 others, most of whom still suffer from their wounds to this day.



PUKMEDIA