ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi authorities have unearthed 31 mass graves including the remains of 1,700 Kurdish individuals and collected 2,007 blood samples from potential relatives over the past 17 years, an official from the state-run Martyrs Foundation told Rudaw on Monday.
Head of the Mass Graves Exhumation Team, Ahmed Qusay, stated that “since the beginning of 2008, around 31 mass graves have been excavated,” containing remains of Kurdish individuals, and that “the remains of 1,700 martyrs have been exhumed.”
He explained that the exhumation efforts are being led by Iraq’s Martyrs Foundation and the Department of Forensic Medicine. However, Qusay attributed “delays in the grave excavation process” to the “lack of funding, specialized staff in this field, and the large number of mass graves.”
Much of these mass graves are linked to the Anfal campaign, a brutal eight-phase military launched by the Baath regime - led by toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein - in the late 1980s. The campaign, carried out across the Kurdistan Region, claimed the lives of more than 182,000 Kurds.
The head of the mass graves exhumation team told Rudaw on Monday that blood samples from families of Anfal victims were collected last year to assist in identifying remains exhumed from mass graves.
Qusay elaborated that to date, forms have been submitted for 2,500 missing persons and 2,007 blood samples have been collected. He added however that “among the issues obstructing the collection of blood samples is that many victims’ kin have either passed away or emigrated overseas.”
On Sunday, families of Anfal victims gathered in Baghdad, calling on authorities to expedite the exhumation of their loved ones believed to be buried in unmarked graves in southern Iraq, many of which have yet to be touched.
Nearly four decades after the Anfal campaign, dozens of mass graves remain undiscovered or unexcavated. Efforts to locate and uncover them continue. The most recent discovery was made on December 22, when satellite imagery revealed several mass graves in Muthanna province. It is believed that around 150 Kurdish women and children were executed and buried at the site.
In 2008, Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court officially recognized the Anfal campaign as a crime against humanity. Yet 17 years later, survivors and victims’ families say they have received little justice or support.
Despite its brutality, the Anfal campaign was just one episode in a broader pattern of persecution and genocide by the toppled Baath regime against Kurds. This history also includes the forced demographic changes in Kirkuk during the 1960s, the disappearance of Faili Kurds in the 1970s, and the chemical weapons attack on Halabja in 1988.
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