ERBIL, Kurdistan-Iraq, July 27 (KUNA) -- About
200 witnesses will testify in Al-Anfal case before
the Criminal Court, in charge of looking into the
cases of Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants next
August, legal counselor of the "Anfalized" Iraq
Kurdistan organization Abdulrahman Haji Al-Zibari
said.
Al-Zibari told KUNA on Thursday that 80 out of the
200 had witnessed the operations and were part of
it, but escaped from the security forces and Iraqi
intelligence to Iran.
He pointed out that among the witnesses are women
who were released with the children after years of
imprisonment and suffering.
He said a total 0f 2,700 Kurdish families were
"totally exterminated from the roots", explaining
that they are without any inheritors and the Anfal
and Martyrs Ministry of the Kurdistan Regional
Government is their legitimate inheritor.
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Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
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He said that according to the eyewitness, the
criminal acts started when some victims were forced
to evacuate their homes and to go on cars, adding
that those who refused the soldiers' orders were
shot in front of everyone else.
As he says, the second phase of the crime was when
women and children where separate, as children did
not stand the new situations and sickened due to the
lack of food and medicine.
The ones who died were buried in mass graves near
the concentration camps in the middle and south of
Baghdad.
The next step was the mass burial of live imprisoned
people in a big hole, he said.
Al-Zibari explained that there are eight different
categories of criminal complaints from people in
Kurdistan against Iraq's former regime headed by
Saddam including Al-Anfal operation, the gassing of
the Kurdish town of Halabja, the 1990 crushing of a
rebellion of Kurds after Kuwait's liberation of the
Iraqi invasion, the "Barzanis Anfal", and the
expulsion of Kurds from Kirkuk and other cities.
Head of the investigation judges Raed Al-Johi
announced that Saddam and six of his accused will be
tried in Al-Anfal case for "mass extermination" and
"a crime against humanity".
The rest of the charged will in Al-Anfal case are
former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad, member
of the dissolved Baath Arab Socialist Party Saber
Abdulaziz Al-Dori, member of the public leadership
of armed forces Hussain Rashid Al-Takriti, former
industry Minister Tahir Tawfiq Al-Aani, and Farhan
Motlak Al-Jabouri who is a senior soldier.
In 1988, the former Iraqi regime launched
eight-phase military operations in Kurdistan known
as Al-Anfal that lead to the killing, dislodgment,
and eviction of more than 182,000 Kurdish people and
the destroying of more than 4, 000 towns.
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