Halabja to Attend Hiroshima Atomic Attack Commemoration

The mayor of Hiroshima has invited the mayor of the Kurdish city of Halabja, a city chemically gassed by the Iraqi government in 1980s, to attend the 65th anniversary of the use of the atomic bomb against the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6.

Khidr Karim, Halabja’s mayor, confirmed to the Kurdish-language daily newspaper Aso, that he had been invited by the authorities of Hiroshima which had been bombed by the United States during the World War II.  As a result over 100,000 people died.

Similarly, More than 5,000 Kurdish civilians were perished in Halabja after attacked by the chemical weapons of the former Iraqi regime under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, executed in December 2006.

The Halabja mayor said that the Kurdish statement will be read in the ceremony expressing shared concern with the Japanese.

Nariman Ali, director of the Kurdistan’s Branch for the World Peace Organization said that the commemoration is expected to take two days in Japan attended by a number of top world figures including a U.S. representative for the first time since the catastrophe occurred.