ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Iraqi government ordered the seizure of assets which previously belonged to Saddam Hussein and more than 4,200 Baathist-regime officials on Monday.
The Iraqi Accountability and Justice Committee sent a letter, seen by AFP, to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office, as well as to the ministries of agriculture, finance, and justice.
Spouses, other relatives, and officials and bosses of the Baathist dictator are included on the list.
Hussein, a Sunni from Tikrit, was executed in 2004 after the US-led invasion and his subsequent manhunt and trial.
His cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid also called "Chemical Ali," is named on the list. Majid was hung in 2010.
At a meeting with members of the Northern Bureau of the Ba'ath Party in May 1988, Majid made it clear that the aim of Saddam’s regime was “the annihilation of the Kurdish people," and “chemical weapons would continue to be used to achieve that goal."
The 1988 Halabja genocide that killed 5,000 people and injured 10,000 in Kurdistan. 182,000 people from Kurdistan were killed in the Baathists' campaigns in the name of Anfal.
Tareq Aziz, a close Christian confidant to Hussein and former deputy PM, was also named in the letter. He died in prison in 2015.
AFP spoke with his son, Ziad, who lives in Jordan.
"We've been subjected to pressure and injustice for 15 years, it's enough," he told AFP via telephone. "When will the spite of this so-called government end?"
Ziad called it "a stunt to win votes" in Iraq's parliamentary elections set for May 12.
Incumbent Abadi is running on a separate list than Dawa Party leader Nouri al-Maliki, who also heads the powerful Shiite National Alliance.
Last month, Iraq released a "wanted list" for those alleged to belong to the Baath Party, ISIS, and al-Qaeda. It included Hussein's daughter, Raghdad, who lives in Jordan.
The current government in Iraq has had relations and agreements with Baathist leader Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
In the Kurdistan Region on Monday, people are commemorating the start of the two-week uprising in 1991 when Peshmerga ousted Baathist forces from Kurdish areas.
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