PM Masrour Barzani repeats call on Baghdad to redress Anfal victims
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on Thursday again called on the Iraqi government to compensate the victims and survivors of the notorious Anfal campaign on the 34th anniversary of the last stage of the ethnic cleansing campaign known as the Badinan Anfal.
"The mentality behind these disasters and crimes must end and prevent the recurrence of such massacres," he said.
He also reiterated “that the Iraqi government should honor the victims and the families of the victims of Anfal and the crimes of the former Iraqi regime in accordance with the constitution.”
Also last year, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani asked Baghdad to compensate the victims of the former Baathist regime.
Read More: PM Barzani asks Iraqi government compensation for victims of Badinan Anfal
The 1988 campaign in the Badinan region saw more than 2,000-3,000 Kurdish men and women forcibly taken from Duhok province (also known as Badinan). The majority of them were murdered by the Baath-regime and their remains have never been found.
The Badinan region is a reference to the area that speaks the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish (also known as Badinani in Duhok).
Read More: Nizarki Fort, a symbol of the Bahdinan Anfal genocide
It is estimated that 180,000 people were killed in the eight stages of the brutal genocidal Anfal campaign in the 1980s, which stretched across Kurdish-populated areas of Iraq.
On July 31, the exhumed bodies of 100 victims of the 1983 Genocide of Barzanis were reburied in Barzan in the Kurdistan Region's Erbil province.
Read More: Bodies of 100 Barzani Genocide victims reburied in Erbil province
Participated in the burial of 100 Barzani martyrs as part of the 1983 Genocide by the former Iraqi regime which resulted in the murder of 8,000 innocent people. Their "crime" was that they were born Barzanis. I pray to His Almighty that their souls are in better places. pic.twitter.com/I88R2RCMYo
— Masoud Barzani (@masoud_barzani) July 31, 2022
President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masoud Barzani during an emotional ceremony in Barzan in July said that while nothing is more valuable than a piece of a martyr's bone, Baghdad still has a "moral and legal responsibility" to compensate the victims' families.
"Neither do I know if any of these coffins contain any of my brothers, nephews, or cousins. But each of them is like a brother, cousin, or nephew to me," he also said.