Kurdistan
An estimated 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe were rounded up and killed by Baathist forces on July 31, 1983. Photo: Bilind T. Abdullah/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan Region’s leaders on Saturday commemorated the 38th anniversary of the Barzan genocide, calling for compensation for victims.
“As we mark this notorious day, we salute the innocent Barzani victims of the Anfal; we pay tribute to all victims of the infamous Anfal campaigns and honor all the fallen heroes of Kurdistan,” President Nechirvan Barzani said on Saturday.
“We reassure the families of the victims that we will spare no efforts to assist them, and that all evidence of the genocide will be collected and documented to help bring about an international recognition of the Anfal campaigns as genocide ... We urge Iraq’s Federal Government to reimburse all the victims,” he added.
On July 31, 1983, an estimated 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe were rounded up, abducted from their homes in the Zagros Mountains and taken to the deserts of southern Iraq where they were killed on the orders of the Baath regime.
The remains of 596 Barzanis have been found in mass graves in southern Iraq. They were returned home, to the Barzan area where they have been laid to rest in unmarked graves, without being identified through DNA testing. Thousands of others are still missing.
The atrocity was an act of collective punishment of the Barzanis, whose leaders were active in Kurdish revolts against the Iraqi regime. Men and boys were the primary targets, but women, children, and the elderly were all victims. Thirty-eight years later, the wounds are still fresh for the survivors and family members.
The Iraqi Supreme Court has recognized the Anfal campaign as constituting genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, however, the international community is largely yet to do so.
“Today, as we commemorate the victims of that genocide, the families of the victims have yet to be compensated by the Iraqi government - even though the Iraqi criminal court has already recognized the Anfal as a genocide,” Masrour Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region said. “It is a moral and legal duty of the government to offer compensation to those affected by the crimes against the Kurdish nation.”
“On this day, we reiterate the Kurdistan Regional Government’s commitment to serving the families of Anfal victims and martyrs, and we will do everything in our power to support them.”
On this day in 1983, systematic acts of ethnic cleansing and #genocide committed against 8,000 innocent #Barzani men and boys by the former Ba’athist regime. We remember and honor the victims of this massacre and all other victims of genocidal campaigns across Kurdistan. pic.twitter.com/iVxYItDWOF
— Safeen Dizayee (@SafeenDizayee) July 31, 2021
Iraqi President Barham Salih has called for compensating survivors and unity in preventing similar atrocities.
“Protecting the people’s rights and prevention of the resurgence of dictatorship and criminality needs unity to serve the people facing struggles and the hardships of this age.”
A new monument to honour the dead and missing has been built in Barzan. The tear-drop shaped monument represents the tears shed by the mothers who weep for their sons. Construction began in 2012 and it was opened to the public on Saturday.
The crimes against the Barzan tribe were part of the Baathist regime’s genocidal Anfal campaign to exterminate the Kurds. Anfal – the eighth chapter, or Surah, in the Quran – was the codename used by Baathists for the slaughter. It literally translates as the spoils of war. More than 182,000 people were killed and over 4,500 villages destroyed in eight phases of the Anfal campaign in the 1980s that culminated with the chemical weapon attack on Halabja.
“That crime was committed against the Barzanis, and all the crimes committed against the people of Kurdistan were because they were Kurds defending freedom … But the will of our people was much stronger than violence, intimidation, genocide and Anfal … Therefore, this lesson must become a lesson for the enemies of the people of Kurdistan and give up the chauvinistic mentality and denial towards the oppressed Kurdish nation,” Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) said in a Facebook statement.
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