Baghdad must compensate families of Anfal genocide victims: President Barzani
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Friday, top Kurdistan Region officials marked the 37th anniversary of the Barzani Genocide, in which the former Iraqi regime brutally murdered about 8,000 Barzani men and women as part of the Anfal campaigns.
On July 31, 1983, the Ba'athist regime in Iraq took around 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe, including men, women, and children, to deserts in southern Iraq, executing them indiscriminately before burying them in mass graves.
Remains of some have been found in southern Iraq and been transferred to the Kurdistan Region, but the whereabouts of most of the victims remain unknown.
Anfal is the Arabic term used in the Quran for "spoils of war." It was the word chosen by Saddam Hussein's regime when they launched the campaign against civilians in different areas of the Kurdistan Region.
Anfal was a multi-phase political, military, economic, cultural, and social process of annihilation by the former Iraqi regime led by Saddam, which the US overthrew in 2003. The campaign resulted in the deaths of an estimated 182,000 Kurds and the eradication of 5,000 villages.
Masoud Barzani, the former president of Kurdistan Region and the current leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), said in a statement on the anniversary of the genocide: "There are few days throughout a year that we do not mark the anniversary of a crime conducted against Kurdish people."
"In this bitter anniversary, the joy of Eid al-Adha and the sorrow of our missing beloveds are intertwined," Barzani added. Friday is the first day of Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is the second of two major Islamic celebrations throughout a year.
"Instead of taking revenge, the people of Kurdistan turned a new page and chose forgiveness," Barzani noted, as he praised the dead as "the martyrs of Kurdistan."
Kurdistan President's Message
In his statement on the issue, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani affirmed that Erbil would remain vigilant to prevent such atrocities from occurring again.
"A life in utter despair and gruesome hardship awaited the mothers and the girls," as they took the responsibility of raising their children "in the absence of their fathers and brothers who never came back from the death camps of southern Iraq."
President Barzani also thanked the people of Erbil province and its surrounding areas for "their honorable roles in sheltering, assisting and providing jobs to the families" whom the Anfal campaign targeted.
He also pledged continued "efforts to prevent the repetition of such genocidal crimes in Iraq and the world," and reiterated that "the government of Iraq must compensate the families of the victims."
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, stated late Thursday, "This immense crime massacred 8,000 innocent people in a brutal method, just for being Kurds."
Read More: Kurdistan PM commemorates 37th anniversary of Barzani Genocide
Editing by Khrush Najari