A Statement on the 23rd Commemoration Day of Chemical Gassing of Halabja City

March 19th, 2011

Every year for the last twenty three years, Kurds around the world with their concerned friends
commemorate the victims of the poison gas attacks against the innocent population of the Halabja City
in Iraqi Kurdistan on March 16, 1988, by the deposed tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein. This heinous
genocide which resulted in the instant killing of 5,000 and severely wounding of more than 10,000
Kurdish unarmed civilians has yet to be declared as genocide by the international community.

Our Canadian House of Commence unanimously passed the Motion M-505 on March 16, 2010 which
reads as follows: “That this House acknowledge the actions of Saddam Hussein against the Kurdish
people in Iraq including the poison gas attack against Halabja on March 16, 1988, the destruction of
Iraqi Kurdish villages and the systematic persecution of Kurds in Iraq and condemn these acts as
crimes against humanity.”

Although it is considered to be the first international step taken by our sovereign nation in condemning
such “acts as rimes against humanity,” our Canadian political system fell short of recognising these
crimes as genocide. Despite of this Canadian short coming, many Kurds around the world have
jubilantly expressed their appreciations for Canada and still pressing other nations to at least be brave
enough to recognise the mass murdering of Kurds in the late 1980s of the last century as “crimes
against humanity.”

As we gather here to remember the lives of those who died by the chemical gassing of Halabja, there
are still hundreds of wounded civilians remain suffering from the direct effects of the poison gas. These
victims do require special treatments and long lasting care. Unfortunately, due to widespread
corruptions and unstable local and national governments in Iraq, the suffering of these victims continues
to be ignored. Therefore, we ask you to write to your federal representatives to:

1. Help in bringing some of the critically in need of medical attention to Canada for treatment;
2. Press the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan regional government to get rid of their
widespread corruptions and bring about reforms leading to the improving developments by
which treating such victims becomes a government priority; and,
3. Press other sovereign nations to recognize crimes of Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in Iraq
as genocide or at least as crimes against humanity.

Let us fight for ending genocide and crimes against humanity all over the world. To begin with, let us ask
for recognizing the date of gassing the Halabja City as an international poison gas condemnation date.

Long live the Kurds and long live Kurdistan.

Concerned Members of the Kurdish Community in Hamilton, Ontario