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Dutch socialist party gives 200,000 Euros
for Halabja monument
17.12.2010
By Wladimir van Wilgenburg
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December 17, 2010
HAGUE, — The
Socialist Party (SP) in the city council of The
Hague, the Netherlands, has given 200,000 euros of
municipal compensation money back to the council and
asked the municipality to use this money for a
monument to the victims of the 1988 chemical attack
in Kurdistan’s Halabja city. Iraqi Kurdish
organizations have welcomed the initiative.
SP lawmaker Harry van Bommel told Rudaw this did not
mean that all the money would be used for the
monument or that other Dutch political parties would
support it.
“But the SP in The Hague will talk with other local
political parties and the Halabja committee in the
Netherlands to get political support for this idea,”
said Bommel.
Bommel will visit Halabja in Iraq’s semiautonomous
Kurdistan region from December 18th to 21st with
Dana Mirza of the Association of Victims of Halabja,www.ekurd.neta
group which seeks assistance for the victims of the
chemical bombing of Halabja by the Iraqi government
in 1988, in which at least 5000 civilians were
killed.
Ali Mahmud from the Centre of Halabja Against
Genocide and Anfalization of Kurds (CHAK), an
organization active in Europe and Kurdistan, was one
of those who supported the SP’s idea.
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Iraqi Kurdish honour guards stand outside Halabja
monument. Photo: Reuters |
“I
think this is a very good thing and I think not only
Dutch Kurds will receive this as good news, but also
the whole Kurdish population,” said Mahmud.
The SP’s initiative was also praised by the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), a Kurdish party
led by the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, and the
Federation of Kurdish Organizations in the
Netherlands (FED-KOM).
“What the regime of Saddam Hussein did in the city
of Halabja was against humanity, and should never be
forgotten,” said Bachtiar Bakr, a representative of
the PUK.
“Let’s hope other Dutch political parties feel
inspired to support this initiative.”
In 2008 Bommel and another Dutch lawmaker, Fred
Teeven, from the People's Party for Freedom, first
called for the establishment of a monument to the
Halabja victims in The Hague, but a monument has so
far not been built.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
rudaw.net
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