New terrorist attack - But the democratic work never stops

There has been a new bomb in South Kurdistan today. This time in Makhmur. The bomb exploded during a big meeting outside of the city hall and the nearbying local KDP office branch 23. At this time 32-35 persons has been killed and 120 people are injured, as reported, in this act of terrorism.

The Mayor of Makhmur and the local national hero Abdulrahman Belaf was hit in the explosion and is injured. He gave anyway an interview to TV and radio regarding the terrorist attack.

Makhmur is today not under Kurdistan Regional Government administration.



This is a picture with Fredrik Malm and the mayor Abdulrahman Belaf. This picture was taken 2007-04-03 during Fredrik Malms visit to Kurdistan. Fredrik Malm is memeber of the parliament in Sweden and is a true friend of the Kurds.

The mayor on TV after the terrorist attack. He said: "...fortunately the democratic process and work will not stop with this terrorist attack. And there are thousands of Abdul Rahman Belaf to replace the first Abdul Rahman [meaning himself]. Our work will never stop."

The mayor of Mekhmur here seen with a girl and her father in Makhmur refugee camp.



These pictures below are from the emergency in Hewler after the terrorist attack.
























Today 2007-05-13 at 11.25 o clock a truck, coverd as a truck loaded with metal for construction work, exploded between the city hall and the local KDP office branch 23. It was an suicide attack and the truck exploded when it was close to the KDP office.

The explosion was so powerful that 100 cars has been blown out around the explosion.

There has been appeal from the minister for care that the people shall not load the care institutions and the care personell. This so they can do their job better. But it seems not unresonable that relatives want to know what has happened or to be close to the hurted.

There are huge mass of people seeking towards where help is needed to provide help in which way it may be. The democratic work will never stop in Kurdistan . It has not been stopped in history and will never be stopped in future... This is very obvious here in Kurdistan.

The scene of the terrorist action. Special Kurdish peshmerga forces.

No internet

We have not had any internet at our office the last days. So i am sitting at hotel Chwarchra right now. I have been trying to work here last days. The owner of hotel Chwarchra is Kurd from Sweden and it seems like he has done a good job. There are always important people here and it seem to be great service at least that is what i have heard.

But once in a while there are tens of life guards running around with thier communication radios and their weapons well covered, protecting some dude. There is actually no need for this security at this level here, but anyways. It is hard to see that they are here in Kurdistan because of any care or special interest in Kurdistan, besides of economical profits or other kind of power. You also see a lot of other people that you have hard to place. I guess i am working to much so i do not see that there are happening a lot here.

Barzan travel

This is the pictures from the Barzan area. We visited Sherwan village, Piran village and Mergasur. The purpose was to follow up our projects in Mergasur and to establish a culture center in Sherwan village.


Right here, when we took a short pause we found out that there had been a terrorist attack in Hewler just a couple of minutes earlier in Hewler. Our plans could however not bee canceled and were best to be performed.

Some of the UZI boys.

The view from Mergasur where we had a workshop later in the day.

Bringing computers as a first step to open a Culture center in Piran village. These will be computers for kids and youths in Piran. They will be able to participate in computer, internet and English courses.

The road to Sherwan village.

Lower part of Sherwan village

Youngsters having a break at school?

The road to North Kurdistan.

Unloading equipment in Sherwan.

Piran mountain

Greeting in Mergasur




We left Hewler 6 in the morning, visited 3 cities, had 3 seminars and 5 meetings without any pause. After that we had a well deserved picnic at 15 o clock. This is on our way down from the picnic place. They always has to get to the top of the mountain to have picnic and of course there has to be a big spring or river there also.





Behind the high mountains in the horizon is the border to North Kurdistan. The mountains do not look to be as high as they look in reality though.




The entrance to Gali Ali Beg that is a fabulous valley as taken from a fairy tale. It was here we saw the puppies last time. But they were not at the same place this time. The mountain you see behind the first one is Korek mountain. On top of it is an old observaroty.

Barzan travel and Hewler bomb

Yesterway it was a terrorist attack in Hewler. It led to 12 persons death and 70 injured. It will also cause severe damage to the democratic work and the safety work that has been built up in the area. but hopefully it will work as a ringing bell to never stop the decmoratic work and to always be aware of the safety and to develop it.

Yesterday our staff had a work travel to Barzani area amongst them Mergasur, Sherwan and Piran. We left hewler 6 in the morning so we were not there during the terrorist attack. However we got aware of it immediately but could not interrupt our plans.




I will update the blog with picture from yesterdays Barzan travel later on today. But here is a picture i took today on the Interior Ministry building. A big misstake in the planning was to have the Asaish (secret service) and the Interior Ministry located beside each other and located on a big comon road in the middle in the city.

The reconstruction work has already begun as you can see on the road. The situation is calm and there are less peopole outside, today in Hewler.

Choman day trip

Yesterday we were invited to a day trip high up in the mountains around Choman. A seminar was also held out in the free. Four Kurdish TV channels were in the area so maybe you saw it on TV.

On the way to Choman

Driving higher and higher. The cars got stuck badly 2 times.

This area is still partly a minefield. Some organizations has been working with clearing minefield areas in Kurdistan. The areas around the borders and around Kirkuk are the worst and you still see a lot of these signs. Choman is a important and historical place in the history of Kurdish war. This was also a military heavy occupied area during the Iraq and Iran war.

A part of Choman city.

Choman culture house that is one of our projects.

The waterfall you saw a couple of posts ago.

I saw some nice puppies on our way and wanted to take this one with me but i do not have the time for it. I will do it next time.

Today was the end of the English course held for students at Salahaddin Economical University and they received their diplomas.

Swedish group

Yesterday we had a dinner and a long evening with a big group from Sweden. It was personnel from all Sweden working with immigration and integration issues from Sweden. It was an interesting evening with many meetings.

It is always a pleasure to meet people that have never visited Kurdistan and to hear about all their positive experiences. Especially the group of Sami people from Lapland with members from the municipal. There was a big discussion about how similar the Lappish culture and the Kurdish culture are. There was a promise on cooperation in fields of sports, radio and media. Now it is up to paperwork in Sweden and us in Kurdistan to make this reality.

Lappish and Kurdish culture are very similar and close to the nature. The group discussed how they had been in the Kurdistan parliament and saw the impressing garden inside the parliament with waterfall and green plants and how similar this was with the Lappish Parliament building that soon is going to be built in Kiruna city in Lapland. It was amazing to think about that and also how similar the Lappish flag and the Kurdish flag are.

The four colors of the Sami flag (red, blue, green and yellow) are the Sami colors. The circle is intended to symbolize both the moon and the sun, the blue part representing the moon and the red part the sun.

Last days

Since my last post I have been very busy. I was with our guest with Germany which was an important issue which led to a huge gap in my work with the Dubai equipment lists and the other technical work that is very intensive now. It is the starting phase for some new projects with partly high tech and very interesting and exciting goals.

Here are some pictures from two last days with our guest from Germany. After that I was in Kirkuk and Slemani. I arrived back to Hewler this morning 9 o clock from Slemani. at our way we stopped by in Kirkuk to and left some equipment, among others DV cams and other recording equipment. There is going to be a film festival there and a team is going to make a contribution for the 140 article which handles the referendum and future of Kirkuk.

The last day with our guest we were at a very special place in Kurdistan that beats many other places like the incredible Bekhal spring and huge Geli Ali Beg that you were in my first post.

I also apologize that the frequency of my posts are decreasing but as long as you do not write me any posts i am not aware of what you think. This beside of the Google analytics statistics on my blog which indeed are interesting. Comments and feedback are appreciated. Besides the reason in decreasing in the blog update is a huge load of work in general but especially right now.

Shaqlawa

Sefin mountain

Mr Germany inspecting the site the old school way

My favorite, waterfalls

Bekhal spring

A tourist village in Rwaduz. Built by an former communist. Way you go buddy.

Kurdistan in spring

Clear blue water. This was at the foot of the mountain.

You could travel up all the way to the spring it self. You travel this way up with special 4WD jeeps. Of cource you can go with your car but is it worth it?

Pretty close to the edge sometimes, and pretty good height also.

Incredible....

Just look at this incredible view. A labyrinth...

The spring it self. It do not look as impressive as seeing it in real life. Imagine that the stairs to the left have a height of 1 meter for each step aproximately. It beats Bekhal spring big time and Bekhal is really impressive and big.



A "Haji" by name at least that had been wandering in the mountains and had collected some nice stuff that he did not want to share. There is a lot of nice and exclusive vegetables in the Kurdish mountains right now since it is spring. All of it is growing in the incredible nature of Kurdistan and this is a source for Kurdish village inhabitans and for gourmet chefs. A haji is an honorable title for somebody that has been wandering to Mecka for the pilgrim travel. I do not think this haji could have afforded such a travel though.

The high mountain behind the man is the border of Eastern Kurdistan (Kurdistan Iran). So cloe but so far away.




A former village that has been built up after the kurdish uprising -91. Since that was a special sensitive town since it is close to Easter Kurdistan "border" the village was completely demolished during the Anfal campaing and the inhabitants were put out to the genocide of the Kurds.

The mountaing pass that you travel through on you way down.