Kurdistan
Nugra Salman castle, a remote prison fortress in southern Iraq, served as a concentration camp during the former Iraqi Baathist regime’s Anfal campaign. Photo: Bilind T. Abdullah/Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish leaders on Thursday commemorated the 34th anniversary of the Anfal campaign against the Kurds, renewing their calls for compensation from the Iraqi government for the survivors and families affected by the genocide.
Marking a start in 1986, the Anfal campaign killed more than 182,000 Kurds in two years of slaughter by then-president Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime. On April 14, 1988, the campaign began in the Garmiyan area in the south of the Kurdistan Region.
“We ask and reiterate the Iraqi federal government to carry out its legal, moral, and humane duty to compensate the Anfal victims and their families,” Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said in a statement.
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani joined President Barzani in calling for victims’ compensation “in accordance with the [Iraqi] constitution.”
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani said it is “imperative” and a “matter of moral responsibility” for the Iraqi government to begin the compensation process.
The genocidal Anfal campaign is one of the most inhumane episodes of Iraq’s history during the last century. It is imperative and it is a matter of moral responsibility for the Iraqi state to begin the process of reparations to the families of the victims of this heinous crime.
— Masoud Barzani (@masoud_barzani) April 14, 2022
Iraq’s Supreme Court recognized Anfal as a crime against humanity and war in 2008. Years later, very little has been done for the survivors or the families of victims of Anfal.
Iraqi PM Mustafa al-Kadhimi commemorated the anniversary of Anfal on Thursday, referring to it as a “criminal campaign.”
“We have to keep building our democratic & peaceful Iraq, and combat any action that may bring back dictatorship & aggression,” said Kadhimi.
The KRG in 2012 presented petitions to the federal government to secure compensation for Anfal survivors and families, but the federal government has not answered the petitions to date.
The Anfal campaign has been recognized as genocide against Kurds by Iraq, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, and South Korea. However, President Barzani affirmed the Region’s efforts for the wider international recognition of Anfal as genocide.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands killed, around 4,500 villages in the Kurdistan Region were demolished during the Anfal campaign.
Updated at 4:11pm
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