Anfal genocide survivors demand return of loved ones’ remains

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Survivors of the Anfal genocide campaign and their families on Monday marked its 37th anniversary by calling on authorities to return the remains of their loved ones and provide long-overdue compensation, as commemorations were held across the Kurdistan Region.

“My mother and father, four sisters, and four brothers are all victims of Anfal. When I come to these graves, I do not know which one belongs to my brothers and sisters. I feel like they belong to my brothers and sisters. Prime Minister, try to bring us back the remains. We do not want any wealth. No wealth will benefit us,” Siamand Mahmoud, from the Kurdistan Region’s Garmiyan administration, told Rudaw.

He is the sole survivor of a family of eleven. Now a father of six, he named each of his children after his lost siblings.

Thousands across the Kurdistan Region commemorated the Anfal campaign on Monday, calling for justice, compensation, and the return of remains still buried in desert mass graves in southern Iraq.

The Anfal campaign, named after the eighth surah of the Quran, was launched by Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1988 and resulted in the deaths of around 182,000 Kurds. The Garmiyan phase of the campaign began on April 14, and that date is now observed annually as the genocide’s anniversary.

From Sulaimani’s western Chamchamal district, two sisters remembered nearly 20 relatives lost to Anfal and spoke of raising ten children alone, never knowing what happened to their husbands.

“It [Anfal photos] wrecks me within. It burns me. I feel like I am going to die. I request that the remains of my family be brought back to us,” said Khadija Aziz.

“Those pictures burn us on the inside. We burned when we saw those pictures. Four of my brothers are Anfal victims. We want the jash [traitors] to be handed to the courts, to be imprisoned forever and never be released,” added her sister, Hanifa Aziz.

“We, the families of the Anfal victims, have no one, no one to take care of us,” said Sara Ahmad, another survivor from Garmiyan.

She and her two sisters are the only surviving members from her family, as all others were killed in Anfal. Her husband, too, is the sole survivor of his family.

“A night before Eid [al-Fitr], I dreamed of my father. I asked him why he did not visit us or ask about us. He said, ‘Of course I asked about you. I spend every day and night with much difficulty. I am very unwell. I am in a place that I cannot leave,’” she said.

“I have one request, for my voice to Mr. Masoud [Barzani] so that I can see him to tell him about the pain in my heart because he understands me and he has the same woes as us,” she added.

Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Barzani issued a statement on Monday commemorating the campaign and called on Baghdad to fulfill its legal and moral responsibilities.

“The criminals ended up with the dustbin of history, but the wounds and tragedies of genocide and injustice are still sunken and have not yet been depleted. The Iraqi state must perform its duty to compensate for the crime of the Anfal and the genocide that was committed against our people,” he said.

Ceremonies were held in Erbil, Sulaimani, Kirkuk, Halabja, Chamchamal, and Garmiyan, with attendees observing a minute of silence for the victims.

The Iraqi parliament recognized Anfal as genocide in 2008. Several officials responsible for the campaign were sentenced to death, including Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as “Chemical Ali,” who was executed in 2011.

But for survivors, the lack of reparations and failure to recover the victims’ remains remain the most painful reminders of a tragedy that still shapes their lives.

Peshawa Bakhtiar contributed to this report.

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