Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — “When we were taken to Nugra Salman, they crammed five hundred people in a single room. It was dark and nobody knew who surrounded them. One of my cousin's daughters, named Kwestan, died in a stampede in that room,” said Paiyza Mahmood Mansour of her experience at a concentration camp during the Anfal campaign, a brutal Iraqi military operation launched by Saddam Hussein against the Kurdish people in the eighties.
“I heard Kwestan crying and my mother cried out saying 'Asmar, Asmar, this is Kwestan screaming.' and Kwestan's mother replied saying 'by God, I too hear her cry, but I do not know where she is. What should I do?,’” the survivor recalled.
Paiyza’s story is just one of many that continues to haunt the Kurdistan Region.
Rudaw has collected the testimonies of several survivors to be released in a seven-part series, entitled “The Anfal Files”.
Anfal' - the eighth chapter, or Surah, in the Quran - was the codename used by Baathists for the slaughter. Ceremonies are usually held each year on April 14 to mark its anniversary. Tuesday marks 32 years since the conclusion of the genocide, which killed more than 182,000 people.
But as the Kurdistan Region enters its 32nd day of a lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, commemoration ceremonies are not expected.
President Nechirvan Barzani released a statement in remembrance of all those affected by the campaign.
“As we remember the victims and all fallen heroes of Kurdistan, it is crucial that we make all efforts to prevent the repetition of such genocidal crimes in Kurdistan or any other place in the world. It is also the Iraqi government’s moral and legal obligation to provide reparations to the families of the victims,” reads the statement.
The Anfal campaign took place over eight phases — beginning in 1986, reaching its peak in 1988 with the Halabja chemical attack that instantly killed 5,000 people and injured 10,000. The massacre intensified in the closing weeks of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88).
The KRG has provided assistance to Anfal survivors and their relatives, including housing and tuition fees for studies.
The Iraqi Supreme Court has officially recognized the Anfal Campaign as constituting genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, however, the international community is largely yet to do so.
Erbil has also made efforts to secure global recognition of the Anfal as an act of genocide, and return the remains of victims from mass graves in Iraq’s southern and central deserts for reburial in the Kurdistan Region.
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