ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Tuesday called on Iraq’s federal government to make reparations to victims of the Badinan Anfal and their families, marking the 38th anniversary of the systemic campaign perpetrated by the former Ba’ath government targeting thousands of Kurds in northern Duhok in 1988.
In a statement, President Nechirvan Barzani described the Anfal as “a grave crime, recognized by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal as genocide, a war crime, and a crime against humanity.”
He also called for continued efforts to secure universal international recognition of the Anfal as genocide, saying the crimes of the past must serve as “a lasting lesson and a warning for Iraq.”
“The iron will of the people of Kurdistan to survive and seek freedom prevailed,” President Masoud Barzani said in a statement, adding that “it is the duty of the Iraqi state to compensate for all the crimes and violations committed against the Kurdish people.”
Kurdistan Region prime minister Masrour Barzani paid tribute in remembrance of “all the victims of this inhuman crime,” in which “the former Iraqi regime killed and abducted thousands of innocent people from the different communities of the Badinan region and destroyed hundreds of villages, resulting in the displacement of tens of thousands of people.”
Badinan Anfal, the eighth and final phase of the broader Anfal campaign launched by Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime against the Kurdish population, began on August 25, 1988, and lasted until September 6, primarily targeting areas located north of Duhok province.
Records indicate that 13,553 people were arrested during the 13-day Badinan campaign, including women and children, with thousands of forced disappearances. More than 5,000 civilians were executed, while more than 60,000 were displaced.
The wider Anfal campaign was carried out between February and September 1988, in which entire Kurdish communities were dismantled by way of mass executions, aerial bombardments, chemical attacks and the destruction of 4,000 villages. Estimates place the number of Kurdish civilians killed during the campaign at around 182,000, according to official figures.
President Nechirvan Barzani paid tribute to those displaced from Badinan who sought refuge around Erbil, in remembrance of residents who sheltered them at Jazhnikan camp.
“We will always remember with gratitude and respect the patriotic and generous response of the people of Erbil and the surrounding areas, who opened their arms to those displaced from Badinan,” he said.
Calls for reparations come as survivors and families of Anfal victims continue to seek international recognition. Iraq has officially recognized the Anfal campaign as genocide, while international recognition of the campaign remains limited.
Although the Iraqi Council of Representatives acknowledged the Anfal as a genocidal campaign in 2008 - and several of its key architects were brought to justice - the continued failure to locate and return the remains of victims from the Badinan phase remains a painful and unresolved chapter.
