Halabja’s Lost Son: Zmnako Ahmed Speaks on Peace Boat

As Peace Boat’s 120th Global Voyage sailed through Europe, we were honored to welcome Zmnako Mohammed Ahmed, a chemical weapons survivor, as part of the TIME FOR PEACE project and as part of Peace Boat’s long-held partnership with the Tehran Peace Museum. Zmnako’s Kurdish hometown of Halabja in Iraq was attacked by the Iraqi government, led by Saddam Hussein, on March 16, 1988 using chemical weapons. More than 5,000 people perished in approximately 20 minutes. Zmnako, who miraculously survived, has been sharing his experiences and campaigning for the abolition of chemical weapons throughout his life. Onboard Peace Boat, he gave his testimony to highlight the horrors of weapons of mass destruction and the intergenerational trauma that it leaves on survivors. 

Zmnako was only 3 months old when Iraqi planes bombed his city with lethal chemical weapons, the poisonous fume from which “smelt like apples”. Zmnako’s family was trying to climb up to the roof of their house to escape the chemical gas when his father, older brothers and sister succumbed to its deadly effects and lost consciousness. Among the family members, Zmnako and his mother were the only ones to survive. Zmnako’s mother fainted, leaving the infant Zmnako to be picked up by Iranian soldiers who took him to neighboring Iran. There, he was adopted by a widow who raised him like her own son. Tragedy struck again when Zmnako’s adoptive mother passed away in a car accident when he was 17 years old. 

Growing up as a stateless refugee, Zmnako, who had been renamed Ali, had no clue about his own identity other than the fact that he was a survivor of the Halabja attack. Without identification documents, he could not proceed with higher education and employment, and all doors were closed to him. Desperate, he contacted various institutions to try to find his roots and one day, the Tehran Peace Museum replied, offering to help him find his family. Following a DNA test, Zmnako was reunited with his biological mother after 21 years. 

Zmnako’s story is one of seemingly insurmountable challenges and the courage it takes to overcome them. On the ship, he told the onboard community about his experiences, emphasizing that, although he survived and found his mother, many families in Halabja are still waiting for the return of their lost children. In addition, he drew attention to the fact that attacks like the one on Halabja scar people for life, if not for generations. “The whole attack took less than 20 minutes. Those 20 minutes changed a lot of people’s lives. I think about my lost siblings every day. My daughter will grow up not having her uncles and aunt around her. This damage will last beyond my generation.” 

Audience members listened attentively to Zmnako’s testimony and eagerly asked questions. Furthermore, Zmnako interacted with the Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Ito Masao and Kuramori Terumi, each sharing similar experiences of losing close family members due to war. In a discussion with survivors of wartime sexual violence from Ukraine, Iryna Dovhan and Halyna Tyshchenko from SEMA Ukraine, Zmnako stressed, “I know that right now, with the war going on in your country, it feels like everything is ending. But trust me, after several years, all of this will be over. Time will heal you, just like it healed me.” 

Finally, Zmnako visited the onboard outreach edition of the Nobel Peace Prize exhibition "A Message to Humanity," and discussed the impacts of nuclear weapons with Kawasaki Akira, member of Peace Boat’s Executive Committee and the International Steering Group member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Zmnako and Kawasaki together reaffirmed their determination to continue to work towards a better world without chemical and nuclear weapons, and where instead of weapons, dialogue is used for international cooperation. 

For more information on Zmnako, see the documentary produced by Peace Boat about his life and testimony below.