Experiencing chemical warfare: two physicians tell their story of Halabja in Northern Iraq.

© 2004 Society of Rural Physicians of Canada 178 O n March 16, 1988, Saddam Hussein attacked his own people, blanketing them with deadly chemicals, cluster bombs and artillery fire. Five thousand Kurdish residents of Halabja, a rural community in northern Iraq, died that day, in the largest recorded chemical warfare incident in history. In November 2003, a 4-person rural medical education team from the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada visited Northern Iraq. As a part of our mission to deliver continuing medical education to rural Kurdish physicians we visited Halabja, a community of 25 000 people 12 to 16 kilometres from the Iranian border. The team interviewed Dr. Sabah Abde Hawrami, the present director of the Halabja General Hospital, about the effects of the chemical warfare, seen in Halabja today. Back in Canada, we also interviewed Dr. Narmin Ibrahim. She was in Halabja when the Iranians attacked and Saddam Hussein responded with chemical aerial attacks.