By Hasse-Nima Golkar

On this day March 16, 1988, the Iraqi Ba’ath regime bombed Halabja with chemical means. This attack was part of an extensive operation under the name “Al-Anfal” (Quran 8:1; The Spoils of War) against the Kurdish population in northern Iraq. As a result of this fascist attack left about 5,000 dead and 10,000 wounded, most of them civilians, who suffered from various diseases and disorders until several years later. This genocide was the largest chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian-populated area in human history.

A poem of Yaghma Golrouee, Iranian poet and songwriter:

DO NOT EXECUTE SADDAM!

Do not execute Saddam

Send him to “Halabja” instead

And let him take deep breaths

Deep breaths, deep

A breath as deep as the mass graves of Kurdistan

Do not execute Saddam

Send him to Shalamja* instead

And let him cry so much

Until the burned Palms in Khuzistan**

Regrow green again

Do not execute Saddam

Leave him to the mothers who still

With every knock on the door

Believe that their missing children

Has returned to his home…

*war-torn border area in southern Iran

**Southern Region of Iran