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MASOUD BARZANI
President of the Kurdistan Region Iraq
Allow me to congratulate you for organizing this important conference in London, The Untold Story: The Kurdish Genocide In Iraq. The intent of this conference is to fully expose the crimes of the former Iraqi regime, which attempted to hide from our shared knowledge and understanding these crimes that shock the human conscience. The Anfal in 1988, the gassing of Halabja in the same year, the mass murder of Faylees in 1979, and crimes against the Barzanis in 1983, were committed against the Kurdish people because of their struggle against oppression and dictatorship. These campaigns led to the murder of 182,000 persons, the destruction of thousands of villages, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
We will never forget those crimes, but they were not just committed against us. While it was our blood that was shed - our children, women, and men whose futures were unfairly stripped from them - these were crimes against the very fabric of humanity. They were crimes against the hope that we may all one day live in peace and security. They were crimes against liberty and basic human dignity and against the long struggle of mankind for basic rights and freedom, and as such, we ask the international community to prevent them happening again.
The 1991 popular uprising in Kurdistan came about as a result of these horrific, inhumane actions against our people, and as the natural result of the Kurdish liberation movement's long struggle for justice, initiated by the late Mustafa Barzani. Because our cause is for greater understanding and tolerance, the victory of our own freedom did not result in retribution against those that harmed us. Our forces captured thousands of soldiers from two Iraqi army divisions in the battle for liberation from dictatorship, some of whom were at least complicit in our long suffering, but we did no harm to these soldiers.
And this is why conferences like this are so important. Dictators and demagogues hide behind the walls they construct between us - they tell us that our suffering is our own, they seek to divide us and to hide our shared desires behind a veil of insecurity, fear, and mistrust. What they do not want us to realize is our strength, bolstered by a wealth of common understanding, which would enable us to realize that these are crimes are committed against us all. It is the silence and division, confusion, and uncertainty of those that would prevent such crimes that enable them to make so many victims of their personal thirst for power.
Every single person in Iraq was a victim of our past. Every man, woman, and child cannot be truly free and secure while others continue to suffer. When we recognize that, we recognize our strength and our ability to work together to construct the future that we want to share. Thus, we reiterate our call on the international community to recognize the crimes committed against the Kurdish people as genocide. I hope this conference furthers our greater understanding of these crimes against humanity and in so doing, enhances our ability to work to prevent their recurrence.
Nechirvan Barzani
Prime Minister Kurdistan Regional Government
I welcome you all to this international conference in London on the Kurdish genocide. The Kurdistan Regional Government has a clear policy to support the needs and rights of the survivors and the families of the victims, to raise international awareness of the Kurdish genocide and to bring the perpetrators to justice. It is also our moral duty to join the international community in their efforts to prevent genocide throughout the world.
It is very important for the international community to understand that our views and attitudes today are shaped by and reflect our history. In this respect, we are no different from any other nation in the world. We can never forget that for decades a systematic attempt was made to annihilate the Kurdish people in Iraq.
We must keep the memory of this tragedy alive and protect the rights and dignity of the families of the victims, but we have to make progress without allowing hatred or violence in our actions and work. We are taking these steps within our culture of tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
The fact that the Iraqi High Tribunal has recognized four of the many massacres against the Kurdish people as acts of genocide has created an important foundation for our efforts towards wider international recognition. We are grateful for this recognition, and grateful to our friends in the European political parties who have tried to raise awareness of the Kurdish genocide internationally.
Much can be done to help the Kurdish people to cope with the legacy of the genocide. International recognition of the crimes would help to provide closure and assistance to the survivors and the families of the victims. We ask the Iraqi government to compensate them, and we ask the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights to cooperate with us to forensically examine the evidence in the mass graves and to return the bodies for proper burial.
Since the 2003 liberation of Iraq, mass graves continue to be found in the deserts and other parts of Iraq. Almost every year we return the remains of more newly discovered victims for reburial in their homeland. Despite the years that have passed, the memory of the genocide is very close.
However, for the people of the Kurdistan Region and the KRG, the memory of the genocide is also a driving force that encourages us to build a prosperous, stable, and bright future. Before the fall of the former regime, which controlled what the United Nations could do here, we struggled to provide basic services. Today, 10 years on, we have been able to rebuild our infrastructure and transform our economy. Visitors to our region are surprised at what we have achieved in a short time, but there remains much to do. Last year I visited areas affected by the Anfal campaign. In Halabja, we continue to allocate land and provide house-building funds for the families of the victims.
We must and will continue to do our best to not only recover but also to look forward and offer our people security, peace and prosperity. We are a forward-looking and optimistic people but we will never forget what befell our countrymen. Thank you for participating in this important conference.
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