Iraqi Kurds seek worldwide recognition of
genocide by Saddam
8.3.2013
By Abdel Hamid Zebari
— Al Monitor |
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A policeman of Kurdish descent walks between coffins
draped with Kurdish flags containing the remains of
victims during a burial ceremony in Sulaimaniyah,
Kurdistan region of Iraq, May 28, 2012. Photo:
Reuters
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March 8, 2013
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— Late last month, the
British parliament
recognized the
genocide committed against the Kurdish population
under the former Iraqi regime. This recognition was
widely welcomed by Iraq’s Kurdish parties, which
seek to gain complete international recognition for
the genocide.
In December 2012, the
Swedish
parliament did the same and acknowledged that the
Anfal Campaign amounted to genocide against Iraqi
Kurds.
Kurdish efforts to gain international recognition of
the massacres against them at the hands of Saddam
Hussein's regime date back to early 2008. At the
time, Iraq’s parliament recognized the Anfal
Campaign carried out by Iraqi forces in 1988 as an
act of genocide against the Kurds.
Erbil, the largest city and the capital of Iraq’s
Kurdistan region, hosted an international conference
in 2008 to inform the world of the genocide against
the Kurdish people.
The conference issued a set of recommendations,
which included the formation of a special committee
that consists of the friends of Kurds in the West,
in order to contact decision-making centers in the
world such as the United Nations, the European Union
(EU), the EU parliament, parliaments of foreign
countries, the International Criminal Court in The
Hague, and organizations and centers for genocide.
It also sought to involve them in efforts to explain
to the world that the Anfal crimes amount to
genocide.
Kurdish officials repeatedly say that the Kurdish
population in Iraq will not feel safe unless the
issue gains international attention, to ensure that
it is not repeated.
The recognition of the genocide by the British
parliament came amid a campaign to gather electronic
signatures. The campaign, in which more than 27,600
British citizens participated,www.ekurd.net
was led by the British Kurdish MP Nadhim Zahawi, who
called on the British government to discuss and
assess the issue of genocide and reveal the truth
about these crimes against the Kurds.
Local authorities in Kurdistan consider the British
parliament’s recognition of the genocide against
Kurds to be important. Iraqi Kurdistan’s Prime
Minister Nechirvan Barzani welcomed the British
Parliament’s decision, and added in a statement:
“This will inspire our friends and friends of human
rights and freedom in other countries to do the
same. We must all stand together against tyranny,
wherever it may appear.”
Aram Ahmed, minister for martyrs and Anfal affairs
in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), told
Al-Monitor: “It is an important step for us, because
Britain is one of the greatest countries in the
world and had assumed a major role in drawing the
political and economic map of the region,” in
reference to the post-World War I period.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the chemical
weapons attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja on the
Iraqi-Iranian border at the hands of the former
Iraqi regime, killing 5,000 people. For this
occasion, the KRG has organized this year a broad
campaign to commemorate this anniversary under the
slogan of “From Tears to Hope”.
Ahmed said: “We will carry on, so that this occasion
gains international resonance and succeeds in
raising international awareness about the genocide.”
He added: “Awareness campaigns about the genocide
have taken advanced steps, but major efforts are
still needed. We have to work together in order to
bring it to the attention of the world that this
people wants to develop itself, wants peace to
prevail in the region, and wants to be a center for
the region’s renaissance and development.”
The Kurdish minister added, “We have come a long
way, but we still have much to do."
According to Iraqi Kurdish sources, the genocide
operations committed by the former regime of Saddam
Hussein started in 1979, when the Faili Kurds in
Baghdad, Khanaqin and other areas were executed. In
1983, another campaign of mass killing took place
against the Barzani tribe, to which the president of
Iraqi Kurdistan Massoud Barzani belongs, killing
more than 8,000 people, whose ages ranged from 12 to
45.
In 1987 the former regime bombarded the villages of
Sheikh Wasan and Balisan in Erbil with chemical
weapons, killing thousands of civilians residing in
these areas and villages. In 1988, the regime
attacked the city of Halabja with chemical weapons,
killing 5,000 women, children and elderly. In the
same year, the Anfal campaign was carried out,
killing 182,000 people and destroying 4,000 Kurdish
villages, according to Kurdish sources.
On June 24, 2007, the Supreme Iraqi Criminal
Tribunal found five people guilty of genocide,
crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Anfal
campaign, while it acquitted one defendant.
Ali Hassan al-Majid is one of the six officials who
were tried. He went by several nicknames, such as
the butcher of Kurdistan and Chemical Ali. He was
convicted of genocide and executed by hanging in
early 2010.
Abdel Hamid Zebari is a contributing writer for
Al-Monitor’s Iraq Pulse. A reporter from Erbil who
works in the field of print journalism and radio, he
has published several reports in local and world
media, including Agence France-Press and Radio Free
Iraq (Radio Free Europe).
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