Middle East - Anthony Ham [200]
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HALABJA
Mention the name ‘Halabja’ to Iraqi Kurds and you’ll be met with looks of sadness and sorrow. What happened in Halabja on the morning of 16 March 1988 was one of the darkest days in Kurdish history.
Halabja was once a bustling city. In the final days of the Iran-Iraq war, it found itself on the front lines, occupied by Iranian troops and Kurdish Peshmerga forces allied with Iran. On the morning of 16 March 1988, Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist forces launched a counter strike, bombarding the city with conventional air strikes and artillery. At about 3pm, Iraqi jets flying low overhead began dropping an unusual kind of bomb that left a smell of sweet apples – chemical weapons. In less than 30 minutes, 5000 men, women and children were dead and 7000 injured. Human Rights Watch has declared the massacre as an act of genocide.
More than 20 years on, Halabja has never fully recovered. It’s a poor, run-down village with high rates of poverty and unemployment. As you enter the town, the first thing you’ll notice is a small roadside statue modelled on the most famous photograph of the massacre, depicting a lifeless elderly man on the ground shielding his dead grandson. The road behind the statue leads to the controversial Monument of Halabja Martyrs, a 30m-tall cenotaph and museum. In 2006 villagers stormed the monument and set it on fire, angry that the government was spending money on the dead instead of helping the living. The monument is being rebuilt and scheduled to open in early 2009.
In Halabja Cemetery, thousands of victims of the chemical attack are buried in mass graves under giant, black-and-white marble blocks. Nearby, a grassy field contains hundreds of neatly arranged white headstones bearing the names of the dead. A sign at the entrance of the cemetery is unforgiving: ‘It is not allowed for Ba’athists to enter.’
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IRAQ DIRECTORY
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ACCOMMODATION
For a developing country emerging from decades of war, Iraq is a surprisingly expensive place. Hotel rooms that went for US$5 before the war are now going for US$50. It all comes down to supply and demand.
For the purpose of this guide, we are assuming that readers are only travelling to Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Kurdish Regional Government is focusing all its energies on building four- and five-star luxury hotels. Hostels and campgrounds are nonexistent. Thankfully, family-run budget hotels are quite common. Older hotels usually have squat toilets, but Western toilets are increasingly common, especially in newer midrange and top-end establishments. With the exception of Kurdish mountain resorts, nearly all hotels in Iraq have air conditioning – a necessity in this desert climate. Unfortunately, electricity is still a luxury (see below) – the more you pay, the more likely your hotel will have a generator.
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BUSINESS HOURS
Officially, government offices, banks and private businesses are usually open 8am to 6pm, Sunday to Wednesday and until 1.30pm on Thursday. Unofficially, business hours in Iraq are whenever the employees feel like showing up to work. Go with the flow. In the summer, bazaars and restaurants are open well past midnight, when Iraqis come out to enjoy the cooler weather.
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DANGERS & ANNOYANCES
We’ve said it once (Click here) and we’ll say it again: Iraq is a war zone. In Iraqi Kurdistan, violence and crime are rare, but not unheard of. Take the same precautions you’d take in any big city. Open hostility towards Western visitors – including Americans – is rare in Iraqi Kurdistan. In fact, Americans are treated like heroes by Kurds. The biggest annoyance is the sheer amount of security officers including Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers, policemen and undercover intelligence officers. Expect to be stopped and