Kurdish
Media - 15 March, 2000
www.kurdishmedia.com
Shahin B. Sorekli
"Long live the brotherhood
of man!"
"Oppressed nations of the world unite!"
"Workers on earth hand in hand!"
Those were the slogans we believed in once,
Concepts dear to our young hearts.
In New York stood the statue of liberty we admired,
In Leningrad empty words intoxicated us
And the red books from Peking impressed so many.
On Sunday masses the priests raised their voices
Cursing the cruelty of man against man;
In mosques the imams preached the fraternity of the Muslims
While their followers replied: Amen.
Yet they remained silent when Halabja was gassed
By the chemicals purchased from the markets of the West and East.
Were we betrayed by the whole world?
Were we punished for our foolishness
Or was it because our world was built on lies?
On March sixteen 1988
When the Kurdish nation once again paid:
Five thousand dead;
Was it not a part of the continuing genocide?
Do you remember the open eyes of that dead child?
Do you recall what the TV screen for a day or two showed?
Bodies of young and old in every street and house:
Has a word been heard about them since?
In a mosque?
In a church?
In a synagogue?
In a temple?
And the gasman is still there:
And who knows?
Maybe they'll sell him more one day
When he can pay.
And the Kurds of the south:
In the thirteen years that passed
Were they able to reconcile,
Have they learned a lesson meanwhile?
Or is Halabja just another sad song
In the folklore of our tragic survival?