Kavien’s Halabja Commemoration in The Hague

Simon Minks and Kavien (Begikhani) Suleiman in LUC looking at the exhibition which Kavien designed and created as part of the Human Diversity major at Leiden University College. The aim was to inform students and academic staff about how the difficult history of (incremental) genocide and oppression against the Kurdish people in the region has created a mechanism of self-continuity and resistance. Advocaat-General Simon Minks is senior prosecutor at the Dutch prosecution office in The Hague, located in the Palace of Justice. In 2005, Minks successfully prosecuted Dutch businessman Frans van Anraat who was sentenced to 17 years emprisonment. imprisonment for his complicity in the delivery of chemical substances to the former Iraqi Ba’ath regime, which in turn were used at the chemical attacks on Halabja and other Kurdish cities.

The exhibition is configured with a keen eye for detail, referring to a famous photo of a man trying to protect his child, a baby. Both are dead, victims of the gas. The same photo was the basis for the Halabja monument installed near the OPCW in The Hague in 2014, but in Kavien’s installation there are numerous carefully chosen details which make it very real: the tradition Kurdisch garment, the doll, the beautiful apples - which however are a reference to the smell of the deadly gas, which was said to resemble a mix of sweet apples, garlic, and clove.

The   document by Kavien describing the exhibition   (pdf) is included. Also information about   Simon Minks   (pdf) and the workshop on procecuting atrocity crimes by Simon Minks (pdf) which was organised by Kavien. Kavien had built up a considerable collection of books on the Halabja gas attacks and on the Anfal campaign. In 2019 he donated most of these book to the University of Halabja, see the   letter of appreciation   from the High Representative to the United Kingdom of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Kavien, at the entrance of LUC, wearing his special Kurdish garment (which he also used for the exhibition).

This is a photo taken during the 2017 commemoration at the Halabja monument in the Hague, near the OPCW, which is the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Kavien wrote an article about the 2018 commemoration on the website of Justice For Kurds (external link).

In front of the OPCW building in The Hague, near the Halabja monument. Kavien also visited the book presentation by Kees Schaepman in 2018 who wrote the book “Halabja. Aantekeningen bij de strijd om Koerdistan” (in Dutch, the title means “Halabja, notes at the battle for Kurdistan”). He wrote an article on Kees Schaepman&srquo;s book (external link) which was published on the site of Justice for Kurds (JFK) in May 2018 under the title “The Black Kitten of Halabja ”. Kavien worked for JFK, which is a Network of Student Ambassadors, established to bring together the brightest and most accomplished students from the United States, Europe and around the world to advocate for the Kurdish cause and demonstrate this people’s commitment to humanist values and democracy.