ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers on Thursday approved an allocation of 600 million Iraqi dinars (roughly 400,000 USD) to renovate and expand the Halabja monument building.

The monument, located near the city’s entrance, was built in 2003 to commemorate the victims of the brutal chemical attack on Halabja in March 1988 during the rule of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, which claimed at least 5,000 lives and wounded over 10,000.

“The allocation of a budget of (600,000,000) six hundred million dinars has been approved…for the year (2025) for the purpose of implementing the project of a new Halabja monument masterplan” read a copy of the decree that The New Region was able to obtain.

The decree commits the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs in the short term to “prepare a presentation for the renovation of the aforementioned [Halabja] monument,” as well as initiating plans to design an auditorium near the monument.

The ministry is then set to start work on designing a new monument on “47 dunams of allocated land,” while seeking to retain the essential characteristics of the “globally recognized” monument.

The project comes amid the postponement of sessions in the Iraqi parliament for two consecutive days that could have seen the passage of a bill for Halabja’s accession to a province. The bill has been a point of contention for Iraqi MPs, with some proposing the inclusion of other districts.

Kurdish blocs in the Iraqi parliament agreed not to attend sessions until Halabja’s accession is the first item on the agenda as an isolated and unaccompanied bill.

Etched into the walls of a hall in the monument are the names of most of the identified victims of the tragic attack, with a wax museum in another hall depicting a recreation of the atrocities of that fateful day. The walls of another room are adorned with pictures taken by photographers first at the scene, along with their preserved camera equipment.

The current plans mark the second such renovation project for the memorial site. The monument was set ablaze during popular demonstrations in Halabja in 2006, with protestors demanding better services and infrastructure projects for the city.

The memorial site serves as a means of keeping the memory of the city’s struggles alive and conveying the affliction its population was subjected to during the Baath regime.