Iraq
Kurdish villagers in Kirkuk province protest against the rumoured return of Iraqi army to a military camp. Date: September 2, 2023. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish villagers in Kirkuk province on Saturday held a demonstration near a former Iraqi military base, trying to prevent the Iraqi army from returning to the notorious camp where the Baathist regime killed and tortured its opponents.
The military camp was built in Topzawa village in 1987 and in the following year the villagers were forcibly displaced from their homes and moved elsewhere in the country. Many victims of the regime’s genocidal Anfal campaign against the Kurds were held in the camp until they were moved to southern provinces and massacred.
Villagers told Rudaw's Hardi Mohammed on Saturday that they saw an Iraqi army convoy entering the village and one cited a soldier saying they were planning to rebuild the camp. Dozens of villagers gathered near the military base, saying they will not allow the army to enter. They fear a repeat of the crimes of the Baathist regime.
One villager said he told the army that “Our relatives were exposed to Anfal and we will not allow them to renovate the base.”
The Iraqi army has not officially announced a plan to return to the camp. Rudaw has learned that an army delegation is in Kirkuk to assess the camp’s suitability.
Gaylan Qadir is a Kurdish parliamentarian in the Iraqi parliament. “This is not the first time, they have been here a few times. They have spoken with these people, asking them to evacuate,” he told Rudaw
This is “unacceptable,” he said.
The Anfal campaign, named after the eighth surah in the Quran, was the codename for Saddam Hussein’s genocide that killed around 182,000 Kurds.
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