VersionsThe Anfal Campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan [English, New York, 1993]
Genocide in Iraq - The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds [English, New York, 1993]
Génocide en Irak: La campagne d'Anfal contre les Kurdes [Français, Paris, 2003]
Irak'ta Soykırım [Türkçe, İstanbul, 2001]
Genocide in Iraq
The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds
Anarrative account of the Iraqi government's organized attempt to eradicate the Kurds living in northern Iraq, this report captures in riveting detail the multiple phases of the Anfal campaign. Anfal, meaning "the spoils," is the name of the eighth sura of the Koran. Ii is also the name given by the Iraqis to a series of military actions that lasted from February 23 until September 6. 1988. Relying in part on previously unpublished Iraqi government documents captured by Kurdish rebels during the Gulf War, Genocide in hag reveals a meticulously organized campaign incorporating prison camps, firing squads and chemical attacks.
The campaigns of 1987- 1989 were characterized by mass summary executions and the mass disappearance of many tens of thousands of noncombatants, including large numbers of women and children, and sometimes the entire population of villages, the widespread use of chemical weapons; the wholesale destruction of some 2,000 villages, including homes, schools, mosques and wells; the looting of civilian property; the arbitrary arrest and jailing in conditio ns of extreme deprivation of thousands of women, children and elderly people, the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of villagers; and the destruction of the rural Kurdish economy and infrastructure.
Genocide in Iraq is the product of almost two years of re-search, during which a team of Middle East Watch researchers analyzed several tons of captured Iraqi government documents and carried out field interviews with more than 350 witnesses, most of them survivors of the 1988 campaign. As a result of this painstaking work, Middle East Watch concludes that between 1987 and 1989, the Iraqi regime committed the crime of genocide.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Human Rights Watch conducts regular, systematic investigations of human rights abuses in some sixty countries around the world. It addresses the human rights practices of governments of all political stripes, of all geopolitical alignments, and of all ethnic and religious persuasions. In internal wars it documents violations by both governments and rebel groups. Human Rights Watch defends freedom of thought and expression, due process of law and equal protection of the law; it documents and denounces murders, disappearances, torture, arbitrary imprisonment, exile, censorship and other abuses of internationally recognized human rights.
Human Rights Watch began in 1978 with the founding of Helsinki Watch by a group of publishers, lawyers and other activists and now maintains offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, London, Moscow, Belgrade, Zagreb and Hong Kong. Today, it includes Africa Watch, Americas Watch, Asia Watch, Helsinki Watch, Middle East Watch, the Fund for Free Expression and three collaborative projects, the Arms Project, Prison Project and Women's Rights Project. Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly.
The executive committee includes Robert L. Bernstein, chair; Adrian W. DeWind, vice chair; Roland Algrant, Lisa Anderson, Peter D. Bell, Alice Brown, William Carmichael, Dorothy Cullman, Irene Diamond, Jonathan Fanton, Jack Greenberg, Alice H. Henkin, Stephen L. Kass, Marina Pinto Kaufman, Alexander MacGregor, Bruce Rabb, Orville Schell, Gary Sick, Malcolm Smith and Robert Wedgeworth.
The staff includes Kenneth Roth, acting executive director; Holly J. Burkhalter, Washington director; Gara LaMarche, associate director; Susan Osnos, press director; Ellen Lutz, California director; Jemera Rone, counsel; Stephanie Steele, operations director; Michal Longfelder, development director; Allyson Coffins, research associate; Joanna Weschler, Prison Project director; Kenneth Anderson, Arms Project director; and Dorothy Q. Thomas, Women's Rights Project director.
The executive directors of the divisions of Human Rights Watch are Abdullahi An-Na'im, Africa Watch; Juan E. Mendez, Americas Watch; Sidney Jones, Asia Watch; Jeri Laber, Helsinki Watch; Andrew Whitley, Middle East Watch; and Gara LaMarche, the Fund for Free Expression.
Addresses for Human Rights Watch
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GENOCIDE IN IRAQ
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED REPORTS ON IRAQ AVAILABLE
FROM HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
The Anfal Campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan: The Destruction of Koreme
Hidden Death: Land Mines and Civilian Casualties in Iraqi Kurdistan
Endless Torment: The 1991 Uprising in Iraq and its Aftermath
Unquiet Graves: The Search for the Disappeared in Iraqi Kurdistan
Needless Deaths in the Gulf War: Civilian Casualties During the Air
Campaign and Violations of the Laws of War
Human Rights in Iraq
Middle East Watch
Middle Fast Watch was founded in 1989 to establish and promote observance of internationally recognized human rights in the Middle East. The chair of Middle East Watch is Gary Sick and the vice chairs are Lisa Anderson and Bruce Rabb. Andrew Whitley is the executive director; Eric Goldstein is the research director; Virginia N. Sherry and Aziz Abu Hamad are associate directors; Suzanne Howard is the associate.
Copyright • July 1993 by Human Rights Watch. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 93-79064
ISBN: 1-56432-108-8
Cover photo shows Kurdish widows at newly exhumed mass grave site.
Susan Meiselas, Magnum Photos, Inc.
