Al-Anfal Campaign
The
al-Anfal Campaign (
Arabic: حملة الأنفال;
Kurdish: Şallawî Enfal) was an
anti-Kurdish campaign led by the
Iraqi regime of
Saddam Hussein between 1986 and 1989 (during and just after the
Iran-Iraq war). The campaign takes its name from
Surat
Al-Anfal in the
Qur'an, which was used as a
code name by the former Iraqi
Baathist
regime for a series of military campaigns against the
peshmerga rebels as well as the mostly
Kurdish civilian population of southern
Kurdistan.
The Anfal campaign, which began in
1986 and lasted until
1989, is said to have cost the lives of 182,000
civilians, according to
Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International.
The campaign was headed by
Ali Hasan al-Majid, a cousin of the Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein. The Anfal campaign included the use of ground
offensives, aerial
bombing, systematic destruction of
settlements,
mass deportation,
concentration camps,
firing squads, and
chemical warfare, which earned al-Majid the
nickname of "
Chemical Ali".
Arabization
"
Arabization," another major element of Al-Anfal, was a tactic used by Hussein's regime to drive
Kurdish families out of their homes in cities like
Kirkuk, which are in the valuable
oil field areas. The campaign utilized heavy
population redistribution, most notably in Kirkuk, the results of which now plague negotiations between Iraq's Shi'a
United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish
Democratic Alliance. Hussein's Ba'athist regime built several
public housing facilities in Kirkuk as part of his "Arabization," shifting poor
Arabs from Iraq's southern regions to Kirkuk with the lure of inexpensive housing.
Iraq's Kurds now strongly resent Arabs still residing in Ba'ath-era Kirkuk housing, and view them as a barrier to Kirkuk's recognition as a Kurdish city (and regional seat) in an increasingly
sovereign Kurdish Autonomous Region. Many Kurds believe that since Hussein's "Arabization" was a form of
ethnic cleansing, they should be allowed to "undo" its campaign in post-Saddam Iraq, ie expelling those Arabs who came north as a result of Hussein's programs.
Kurds have always referred to these attacks as the
genocide. In December
2005 a
court in
The Hague ruled that the killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq in the 1980s was an act of genocide [
1].
According to the 1948
Geneva Convention, genocide is defined as "acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The
Dutch court said it considered "legally and convincingly proven that the Kurdish population meets requirement under Genocide Conventions as an
ethnic group. The court has no other conclusion than that these attacks were committed with the intent to destroy the Kurdish population of Iraq."
In an
interview broadcast on Iraqi
television on
September 6,
2005, Iraqi president
Jalal Talabani said that
judges had directly extracted
confessions from Saddam Hussein that he had ordered
mass killings and other "crimes" during his regime and that he deserves to die. Two days later, Saddam's
lawyer denied that he had confessed.[
2]In June, 2006 the
Iraqi Special Tribunal announced that
Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants will face trial on
August 21 in relation to the 1980s Anfal campaign.
(China Post)* During Anfal campaign, the Iraqi government destroyed about 4,000 villages in Iraqi Kurdistan [
3]
* The Iraqi government executed approximately 182,000 men, women, and children [
4]
* 1,754 schools destroyed
* 2,450
mosques destroyed
* 27
churches destroyed [
5]
* 270 hospitals destroyed
* around 75% of villages wiped out
*
1988 Anfal campaign*
Halabja poison gas attack*
GENOCIDE IN IRAQ: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds, extensive
Human Rights Watch report
*
The Anfal Campaign(Iraqi Kurdistan), 1988 
