www.theregion.org Kurds in Halabja protest against ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar by The Region - 07/09/2017 12:27 A huge crowd of Kurds converged in Halabja, some with banners decrying what participants called the "Genocide in Burma." On March 16, 1988, during the Anfal campaign that happened under the tutelage of Saddam Hussein, , the Kurdish residents of Halabja endured one of the most vicious, and bloodiest, chemical massacres in the Anfal Genocide. Some estimates put the death-toll at up to 10,000. Furthermore, years after the attack increased rates of cancer and birth defects were demonstrated to persist in Halabja. In March 2010, the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal officially recognized the chemical weapons attacks as an act of genocide. The congregation of Iraqi kurds to protest the mistreatment of Rohingya Muslims, a minority in Burma who have been subjected to vigilante violence by Buddhist extremists, has therefore been interpreted by many as a powerful symbolic gesture. It is estimated that in the latest cycles of violence this month,120,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh after a brutal crackdown on the population who had there citizenship stripped in 1982. The economist have described Rohingya Muslims as one of the most persecuted groups on the planet, and on September 5th 2017, Human Rights watch received satellite imagery showing 19 burn sites -- committed either by vigilantes or the military -- all across the areas bordering with Bangladesh. Amnesty International has declared that violations by security forces may have amounted to crimes against humanity, and while most experts have not reached the conclusion that a genocide is occurring, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, told Newsweek that "The current violence raises even higher alarms about the risk of genocide.".