UK Minister of State for the Middle East Lord Tariq Ahmad honored the many Kurdish people who were killed and injured during Saddam Hussein’s genocidal Anfal Campaign on the 36th anniversary of the event.
“On this sombre day, we remember the men, women and children who were victims of Saddam Hussein’s inhumane, coordinated campaign against Kurdish and other minority groups in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq between 1986 and 1989,” Lord Ahmad said in a statement on April 14.
During the eight stages of the Anfal Campaign in the 1980s, over 180,000 men, women, and children from Kurdistan were killed by the Ba’ath regime in the midst of the Iraq-Iran War. Moreover, over 4,500 villages were destroyed in an attempt to destroy Kurdistan’s rural way of life and heritage.
“The Anfal Campaign saw appalling acts committed, from the forcible displacement, murder, and maiming of 50,000-100,000 individuals, to the destruction of 4,000 Kurdish villages,” Lord Ahmad added.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) detailed the systematic and deliberate murder of at least 50,000 and possibly as many as 100,000 Kurds in a comprehensive report originally published in July 1993.
HRW said in the report that the evidence surrounding the campaign showed “that the Kurdish victims were targeted on the basis of their ethnicity.”
Read More: Kurdistan Region Commemorates 36th Anniversary of Halabja Attack
On March 16, 2024, UK Consul General in Erbil James Goldman visited Halabja to pay his respects to the victims massacred during the 1988 chemical attack on Halabja.
In his statement Lord Ahmad added that the Halabja attack was “Saddam Hussein’s most infamous use of chemical weapons against the Kurdish people.”
“The UK remains committed in its support for the peace, stability, and prosperity of the people of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq,” he concluded.
Kurdish leaders have called on Baghdad to compensate the victims of the attack.
Message from President @masoud_barzani on the 36th anniversary of Anfal
— KDP ForeignRelations (@kdpfro) April 14, 2024
In the name of God, the Gracious the Merciful
The #Anfal campaign is one of the greatest crimes of the former Iraqi regime, which was committed with the aim of erasing, destroying and exterminating the… pic.twitter.com/t0a27GFd5F
Kurdistan Democratic Party President Masoud Barzani said in a statement on April 14 that it “is the duty of the official institutions of the Iraqi state to work to compensate victims of the Anfal Campaign and the genocide and oppression committed against the Kurdish people and to prevent all kinds of evil attempts and policies that view the rights of the people of Kurdistan with a chauvinist view.”
Moreover, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in a statement said “these heinous operations, executed by the former Iraqi regime in 1988, remain one of the most abhorrent crimes of genocide in the annals of humanity, with enduring repercussions that persist to this day and extend far into the future.”
“While the Iraqi High Tribunal has recognized this crime as genocide, we urge the federal government of Iraq to fulfill its duty in serving justice and providing compensation to the affected families,” he underlined.
The Anfal genocide campaign started 36 years ago today, with the objective of eradicating the Kurdish nation.
— Masrour Barzani (@masrourbarzani) April 14, 2024
We will never forget the sacrifices made for our freedom and prosperity. pic.twitter.com/bsanho5ff1
Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani emphasized in a statement “that it is the moral and constitutional duty of the federal government to compensate the families of the Anfal victims and all victims of the Ba'ath regime.”
Furthermore, he said there are still parties that seek “to deny the legitimate rights of the Kurdish nation, despite its historic struggle for freedom and dignity.”
