Important Information About Amna Suraka

Important Information About Amna Suraka

by Jonny Blair

For those of you not familiar with the past Iraqi War or with Persian geography, you may not have heard of a couple of places that have played a part in its history. You may not have heard of Amna Suraka. This place is located in Iraq and is considered as one of the more impressive museums in Iraq. It has however, a fairly dark and horrible past.

The place used to be a prison, and its name in Kurdish means red security, or red security house. During the reign of Saddam Hussein, thousands of Kurdish people were imprisoned and tortured here, with crimes ranging from political insubordination to just plain being Kurdish.

The museum itself is located in Sulaymaniyeh within the old security compound for the security forces at the time. Colored red, it has extra decorations in the form of retained bullet holes from the 1991 uprising that was part of a wave that made Iraq free. The courtyard still has old tanks, artillery and other weapons of war as a grim reminder.

The first area that will greet one when entering the building will be the Hall of Mirrors. This hall contains 182,000 shards of glass comprising one enormous sort of installation art. Each shard represents one life taken from the Kurds under the rule of Saddam. On the ceiling of the same room are twinkling lights numbering 4,500, each light representing one village destroyed during the Anfal campaign.

Going further into the building one will find a replica of a traditional Kurdish village in the next room. Further on, the visitor will see cells used for torture and confinement, complete with gruesome statues to reenact what had happened inside. One such reenactment is a diorama involving the torture of two children by prison guards.

Going down further to the basement, one will be immersed in a photo gallery depicting the chemical attack on Halabja. The way it is presented here is somewhat akin to what one would see in the Holocaust museum in Tel Aviv. It will definitely make one more humanistic and sympathetic to the Kurdish plight.

Definitely this is one of those places wherein one can visit while trudging onwards or backpacking through Kurdistan. It will not only be educational but instrumental as well in keeping one in touch with humanity.



Read my intriguing story about the experience at <a href="http://dontstopliving.net/saddam-husseins-house-of-horrors-my-trip-to-amna-suraka-red-security-complex-sulaymaniyah-kurdistan-iraq">Amna Suraka Iraq</a> where I faced many challenges along the way. I have written about my <a href="http://dontstopliving.net/category/central-asia-middle-east/iraq/kurdistan">backpacking Iraq</a> to Saddam Hussein's house of horrors. Check out my posts right away by reviewing the homepage.

---------------------------------------------------
You are receiving this because you signed up for it on 2012-04-22 from IP 114.79.13.119
To fine-tune your selection of which articles to receive, just login here:

http://www.uniquearticlewizard.com/bloggers/

using your username:

To unsubscribe please use the following link:

http://www.uniquearticlewizard.com/unsubscribe.php?mail=wisatanusantara3.alankoesumah@blogger.com&code=d48035f43fb1db56998290ec5232b52c
---------------------------------------------------