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Kurds seek justice in next Saddam trial
30.6.2006
By Margaret Besheer
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Erbil, Kurdistan- Iraq, June 29, -- Iraq's
High Tribunal announced this week that former
dictator Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants will
go on trial August 21 for the mass killing of tens
of thousands of Iraqi Kurds during the 1980s in what
was called the Anfal Campaign. VOA's Margaret
Besheer is in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq,
and tells us hundreds of Kurds have volunteered to
be witnesses at the trial, hoping for justice.
On February 25, 1988, Saddam Hussein's army began a
campaign of mass murder against Iraqi Kurds living
in the northern part of the country. When it ended
the following September, tens of thousands of
Kurdish men, women and children had been killed, or
had disappeared. Some human rights groups estimate
the number of dead to be as high as 182,000.
The regime's codename for the operation was al-Anfal,
the title of a chapter in the Koran that means
'spoils of war' in Arabic.
In eight separate stages during 1988, Saddam's tanks
and troops attacked and destroyed more than 4,000
Kurdish villages. They began their campaign in the
east, in Sulamaniyah, and moved westward through
Erbil to Dahuk, near Iraq's border with Turkey.
One of the worst attacks during this period was
against the town of Halabja, on the Iran-Iraq
border. Here, Saddam is accused of ordering the use
of chemical weapons, killing some 5,000 civilians.
This crime was so horrific that the Iraqi High
Tribunal will consider it in a separate trial.
Almost 20 years later, many Anfal survivors have
still not recovered from the loss of their loved
ones, livelihoods and homes.
Chnar Abdullah heads the newly-created Ministry for
the Anfal in Kurdistan regional government. She says
survivors face special problems. |
Chnar Abdullah heads the newly-created Ministry for
the Anfal in the Kurdistan regional government
Photo:VOA
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
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"We have conducted research, and found that 20
percent of survivors, particularly women, are likely
to have psychological problems, because they lost
the men in their families," she said. "Until now,
many still do not know what has happened to their
loved ones, and they are still waiting for them to
return."
As the starting date for the Anfal trial approaches,
Abdullah says her ministry is working to prepare
some of the evidence. She says more than 1,000 Kurds
have offered to publicly testify against Saddam and
his co-defendants, but the Tribunal has asked for
only 200 witnesses.
She says, two things must come from this trial: that
Saddam be found guilty of his crimes and face
justice; and that the survivors be allowed the right
to ask Saddam for compensation for their loss.
When Saddam's trial opens in August, it will be in
the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Yousif Shwan is the
Kurdish regional government's human rights minister.
His ministry was responsible for Anfal issues before
the Anfal Ministry's creation. He says most Kurds
want the trial to be held in northern Iraq.
"If you take the general idea of the people, they
say he did these things in Kurdistan, so he should
be brought to Kurdistan, and the trial held in
Kurdistan," he said.
In the village of Hareer, residents live frozen in
time. Their lives stopped on the morning in July
1983, when they lost everything. It was here that
Saddam's troops killed some 8,000 men and boys from
the Barzani tribe in retribution for their leader,
Massoud Barzani's alliance with Tehran during the
Iran-Iraq war. Although earlier than the 1988
campaign, these crimes are also considered to be
Anfal by the Kurds, and will be part of the case
against Saddam in August.
Pirouz remembers when Saddam's troops surrounded her
village.
"It was before dawn and still dark; we were sleeping
when they attacked us," she said. "They took the
boys and the men."
Recently, mass graves were unearthed in the western
Iraqi desert containing the bones of some of these
missing men and boys.
Although Saddam's trial will be held in Baghdad and
not northern Iraq, many Kurds are relieved that the
former dictator will finally have to answer for the
suffering he has caused their people.
voanews com
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