ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The iconic Kurdish city of Halabja and the surrounding province needs to follow a comprehensive development plan, the Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers said on the 27th anniversary of the deadly 1988 gas attack on the area’s population. The ministers issued a statement urging all government agencies to implement a plan to develop the area, responding to complaints from residents that Halabja was being overlooked. Halabja officially became the fourth province of the Kurdistan Region on February 5. “The KRG decision to make Halabja a province was not merely a political decision. The KRG is working on economic, political, and socio-cultural aspects of a concrete development plan for the province,” the KRG council said in a statement. Halabja city is a member of Mayors for Peace, an international organization of cities dedicated to the promotion of peace. The group was established in 1982 at the initiative of the then-mayor of Hiroshima, Japan. A chemical attack launched by the Iraqi regime on March 16, 1988, led to the deaths of an estimated 5,000 people, including many women and children. Since then, the city has become a powerful symbol of Kurdish.
