PM Barzani calls for Iraqi compensation on 39th anniversary of Barzani genocide

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani once again called on the Iraqi government to fulfill its obligation to compensate Kurdish victims of past genocides on Sunday, the 39th anniversary of the Barzani genocide.

“On this occasion, we reiterate on compensating the relatives of Anfal and genocide victims fairly by the Iraq federal government as stipulated in the constitution,” Barzani wrote, adding that the legal obligation has been neglected along with other obligations under the constitution for years now.

In 1983, the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein forcibly disappeared and massacred 8,000 young and elderly Barzani males.

The prime minister also commemorated the Kurdish nation’s other genocides, including in Garmiyan, Badinan, Balisan, Sheikh Wasanan, and atrocities against the Feyli and Yezidi Kurds.

He hailed the historical role of Barzan and its people in the nation’s struggle for liberty.

Hundreds of relatives of the Barzani victims gathered in the Kurdistan Region’s Barzan on Sunday to commemorate the atrocity. One hundred bodies of Barzanis massacred at that time were exhumed from the southern Iraqi desert and are being reburied in Barzan.

Government officials and diplomatic delegations are set to attend the event, which is being held in the newly-inaugurated memorial for the atrocity in Barzan. The bodies were received on Saturday in a ceremony at Erbil International Airport.

Following the toppling of the former Iraqi regime in 2003, a Kurdish human rights team visited the southern desert and was able to unearth at least 500 corpses. They were later buried in Barzan.