BAGHDAD, Aug 18, 2006 ,-- The Anfal campaign of
the late 1980s, for which former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein and six co-defendants will go on
trial in Baghdad on August 21, was the climax of
decades of antagonism between Iraq's Kurds and the
central government.
Prosecutors are describing the campaign as an act of
genocide against the Kurdish people, while the
former Iraqi regime has defended its actions as no
more than a necessary counter-insurgency operation
during wartime.
Although estimates vary, it is believed that at
least 100,000 Kurds were killed during this period,
and more than 3,000 villages were destroyed.
The Iraqi High Tribunal had announced in April that
Saddam and six co-defendants -- including Ali Hassan
al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali -- would face
genocide charges over the Anfal campaign. |
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
|
Between 1987 and 1989 there were major attacks on
the Kurds -- including the gassing of the entire
population of Halabja in 1988 in which 5,000 people
died. Halabja will not be counted in the current
case, however.
The gassing of Halabja by Iraqi forces was in
retaliation for the capture of the city by Kurdish
peshmergas (warriors) backed by Iranian
revolutionary guards, and did not form part of the
eight official Anfal campaigns.
The term "Anfal" comes from the eighth sura of the
Koran and means spoils. The campaign involved the
systematic bombardment, gassing and then assault of
areas in the Kurdish autonomous region in 1988.
By 1986, with the regime under severe strain because
of its war with Iran, large swathes of the Kurdish
region had become free of central government
control.
So starting in 1987, Saddam charged his cousin,
"Chemical Ali," with bringing the area back under
state control.
Ali began by declaring "prohibited" zones, much like
the Vietnam war-era "free fire" zones, in which all
inhabitants were considered insurgents.
Villagers were moved to defined and easily
controlled settlements, while the prohibited areas
were first bombarded and then invaded in classic
counter-insurgency tactics.
According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch,
what made these campaigns different from counter
insurgency operations was a clear plan to
exterminate the Kurds as a people.
"Tellingly, the killings were not in any sense
concurrent with the counter-insurgency: the
detainees were murdered several days or even weeks
after the armed forces had secured their goals," the
organization said in its extensive report on the
campaign.
"Finally, there is the question of intent, which
goes to the heart of the notion of genocide," said
the report, going on to detail the documents and
testimony that make this intent clear.
Central to the case will be Majid, and accusations
that he made liberal use of poisonous gas, mass
executions and prison camps to subdue the north.
The remaining defendants include former minister of
defense Sultan Hashem Ahmed and high-ranking
Baathists Sabir al-Duri, Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti,
Taher Mohammed al-Ani and Farhan al-Juburi.
Saddam and seven co-defendants have already faced
trial for allegedly executing 148 inhabitants of the
Shiite village of Dujail following an assassination
attempt there against Saddam in 1982.
They face execution by hanging if convicted in the
Dujail case. A verdict is expected to be issued by
October.
But Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd,
has said that Saddam would be tried for all his
crimes before any of the verdicts are implemented.
AFP
Top |
® 