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PREFACE
We as (Aram Muhammed, Saud Mustafa and Sleman Jajis) are administration board of Baran Organization for the case of Anfal. We all lost our family members and relatives in Anfal Genocide. We all are working voluntarily in this organization. This is because we have suffered a lot due to losing our family members and relatives in the Anfal Genocide. We also can feel the pain of those people who lost their family members and relatives in the barbaric actions of Saddam's regime in the entire Iraq. And, one of the main objectives of our organization (Baran Organization for the case of Anfal) is to collect more information about crimes that done against people by Saddam's regime and try to documentary those data and information as an evidence. We want to collect information from the victims who suffered a lot by Saddam's regime.
In 2018, in the 30th anniversary of Anfal Genocide, we will try to do something very significant. We will print a book which is written by Arif Qurbany. This book is about those people who survived from the Anfal Genocide in 1988, and they are still alive. The author of this book interviewed with the victims and collected information in a book. This book is also translated to some other languages. Another part of our project that we will do is printing 6 books, and 5 of these books are about those people who survived from Anfal Genocide. And, the 6th book is about a driver who participated in Anfal Genocide by digging a huge hole to put the bodies of people in. We really want to work on Anfal Genocide in order to be known as an international Genocide. We want people around the world be aware of the Anfal Genocide from the victims of this genocide.
Staff of Baran Organization for the case of Anfal
Introduction by the translator
The genocide committed against the Iraqi Kurds by the regime of Saddam Hussein in 1988 was one of the most systematic mass killings from the post World-War two era.
These multiple acts of genocide came under the name, Anfal: a name that points to the eighth of the Qur'an' 114 Suras. This Sura is composed of 75 verses and almost all of them deal with the extremity with which you treat your enemy: how and when to use extreme action and how to forgive and take a peaceful stand when the enemy declares peace. One of the most forceful verses in this 'Anfal' Sura is verse 60 which states, "Prepare whatever force you can to terrorize God's enemy and your enemy."
Running alongside this Anfal extremity is 'Jihad,' which is already well known to Western media and concerned experts as 'Islamic Holy War.' There is no Sura entitled or dedicated to Jihad, but this concept is mentioned several times in different chapters. Jihad is understood as going to take part in a war where there is a threat against Islam or the Islamic nation and such participation comes in response to call to Jihad from a high-ranking Islamic leader such as a Mufti. Once a Muslim decides to undertake Jihad he must be willing to sacrifice himself and whatever he has.
The Grand Ayatollah Khomeini was in the position of being able to declare a Jihad during the Iran-Iraq War; however, he did not do so because of the expected consequences. Saddam Hussein called for Jihad on numerous occasions when he felt himself threatened and not Islam! For this reason, he only received a weak response from the Iraqi people and next to no answer from the Pan-Arab nations.
While Jihad has been successfully accomplished at different times in the Islamic era, notably under Salahuddin’s leadership, no-one apart from Saddam Hussein has ever used Anfal against any group or nation in the known history. He used Anfal operations to try and exterminate a nation, whom he had previously called "our people" and "our brothers."
With the Ba'ath Party coming to power, a process of Arabization of Kirkuk City and other Kurdish towns bordering the Arab-speaking region of Iraq commenced and continued without ceasing. This process included the confiscation of Kurdish homes and properties, the deportation of Kurdish families, and the settlement of Arab families into these houses. We could say that Saddam planned to wipe out the Kurds. He caused the demolition of 4,500 villages in the Kurdish region, forcing many of them into collective towns and into remote areas in the south in order to break their cultural identity. In so doing, almost all the villagers were deprived of their sources of income and living.
In the later period of the Iran-Iraq war when there were no international observers in the region, Saddam Hussein caused the bombing of several Kurdish towns with chemical weapons. In Halabja alone, more than five thousand people were killed, and several thousands were badly wounded and diseased from the poisoned gas released that day, many of whom are still suffering with chronic illnesses as a result.
It is’ amazing to think that the Anfal genocide operations were carried out in such an open and arrogant fashion. Commanders such as Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan Majid (’Chemical Ali') were assigned their position and duties by laws passed in the parliament of Saddam's regime. Local headquarters were established in almost every Kurdish city and had large signs on the buildings that read, 'Anfal Operations Command.' Tens of thousands of troops were ordered to attack Kurdish towns and villages, to demolish houses, to deprive the local inhabitants of every means of making a living and to detain all the inhabitants regardless of age and gender before transporting them to the notorious 'Topzawa' concentration camp near Kirkuk.
Detainees were kept for days with undrinkable water and very poor-quality food. The children and babies were separated from their families and were taken away never to be seen again. The babies died from lack of care and feeding. Young girls were sold into prostitution through black market deals and were sent to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait. All this happened at the time when Saddam’s regime regularly gave out statements saying, "We Arabs are people of chivalry; we do not humiliate human beings, not even our enemies!"
The most severe year in the Anfal operations was 1988. Although 182,000 victims have been documented, there are tens of thousands of victims who have not been recorded: the unnamed newborn infants, the unborn children of pregnant mothers, the many people who were shot at and killed by the infantry and the air force as they escaped on foot and those who died through starvation and diseases rather than give themselves up to the tyrant' army.
It is now clear that several areas in central and southern Iraq were used for the mass executions and the mass burials of the Anfal victims. Numerous graves have been discovered since the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003 and what is distressing is the complete disregard for human dignity and social and religious standards in the creation of the mass graves.
Graves were routinely not covered over properly allowing the bodies to be exposed to wild animals. Perhaps the greatest disdain for human values practiced by the Ba'athist regime was demonstrated in their burying dogs along with the humans. This is in stark contrast with the 'Anfal-led' Kurds who were keeping the fasting month of Ramadan at the time of their execution - they fasted right up to the time of death by firing squad!
We Kurds have a duty to history to tell the world what the Anfal is all about, why it was carried out and the depths of the repugnant ways of how these genocide operations were implemented.
In translating this book from Sorani Kurdish, I am deeply grateful to my friend, Arif Qurbani, who has authored this and other similar books. He himself is from the city of Kirkuk which was the main center of Anfal genocide operations. Arif has helped me in devoting his valuable time to answer many of my questions in preparing this translation work. I am also much obliged to Dr. Andrew Hyde who spared no effort in making this book acceptable to English readers.
My friend and I plan to publish a number of other books about the notorious genocide operations known by the title, 'Anfal.' We try to collect all the truth by interviewing both the victims and the perpetrators. In this small volume, we will discover the Anfal story through the eyes of Uzer, a direct eyewitness and victim of these events when he was in his mid-20's: a young man who survived in a miraculous way!
Abdulkarim Uzeri
Introduction
The number of people who were subjected to the notorious Anfal campaigns was abundant. Tens of thousands of non-combatant civilians including men, women and children, were collected at gunpoint from different places of Kurdistan, the Kirkuk area in particular and were taken to the Topzawa concentration camp west of Kirkuk city. Thereafter, men aged between 15 and 70 were put into sealed transporters and taken to the firing squad fields of Ar-Ar desert west of Baghdad.
There are witnesses who saw the detaining processes. There are people who explain how dear members of their families were blind-folded and were put in those sealed cars. But only handful numbers of victims who, one way or another, could survive the firing squads. Those survivors are the only Kurds who can tell the story of the mass execution by Saddam's soldiers and the burying process by bulldozers.
Those survivors were traveling in ‘the convoy of no return.’ They were sprayed with bullets at the edge of the mass grave pits. They were pushed and thrown into the ditches but miraculously survived. Faraj Muhammad Aziz is one of those survivors. He was 28 years old when he was affected by the Anfal genocide process. Ten years after his ordeal, he moved to the United States where he could resume his peaceful life. In 2004, he paid a visit to his homeland and he was kind enough to grant me this exclusive interview. Although this interview came sixteen years after his big escape, his answers were still greatly informative. Faraj lives now in Washington and is a citizen of the United States of America.
Arif Qurbany
Forward by the Translator
The genocide committed against the Iraqi Kurds by Saddam Hussein’s regime in 1988 was one of the most systematic of mass killings perpetrated in the post World-War two periods.
These multiple acts of genocide came under the name Anfal: a name that points to the eighth Sura in the Qur'an. This Sura is composed of 75 verses and almost all of them deal with the extreme way in which you treat your enemy; how and when to use extreme action and how to forgive and take a peaceful stand when the enemy declares peace. One of the most forceful verses in this Anfal Sura is verse 60 which states: "Prepare whatever force you can to terrorize God's enemy and your enemy".
Running alongside this extreme teaching is Jihad which is already well-known to the Western media and concerned as ‘Islamic Holy War.’ While there is no Sura entitled or dedicated to Jihad, this concept is mentioned several times in different chapters. Jihad is understood as going to take part in a war when there is a threat against Islam or the Islamic nation, and such participation only comes in response to a call to Jihad from a high ranking Islamic leader such as a Mufti. Once a Muslim decides to undertake Jihad, he must be willing to sacrifice himself and whatever he has.
The Grand Ayatollah Khomeini was in the position of being able to declare Jihad during the Iran-Iraq War. However, he did not do so because of the expected consequences. Saddam Hussein called for Jihad of numerous occasion, but when he felt his life threatened and not Islam! For this reason, he only received very weak response from the Iraqi people and next to no answer from the Pan-Arab nations. While Jihad has been successfully accomplished at different times in the Islamic Era, notably under Saladin's leadership, no-one apart from Saddam Hussein has ever used Anfal against any group or nation in the known history. He used Anfal operations to exterminate a nation, whom he had previously called "our people" and "our brothers".
When the Ba'ath party came to power, the process of Arabization of Kirkuk and other Kurdish towns bordering the Arab-speaking regions of Iraq commenced and continued without ceasing. This process included the confiscation of Kurdish homes and properties, the deportation of Kurdish families, and the settlement of Arab families into these houses. We could say that Saddam planned to wipe out the Kurds. He ordered the demolition of 4,500 villages in the Kurdish region, forcing many of them into collective towns and into remote areas in the south of Iraq to break their cultural identities. In so doing, almost all these villagers were deprived of their sources of income and living.
Arif Qurbany on his interview with Faraj Muhammad Aziz
Vastly enormous was the number of people who have been massacred during the Anfal operations ordered by Saddam Hussein, the chief of the Iraqi Ba’athist regime. Huge was the number of families that suffered the heartache of the Anfal tragedies. And there have also been a very small number of victims who could run to the safety despite their wounds caused by shooting at the mass grave sites.
These survivors are now telling us what exactly happened to them, they tell the stories of the Anfal operations which were enacted according to a decree by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein Al-Majeed.
Saddam authorized his cousin Ali Hassan Al-Majeed (best known as the Chemical Ali) to perform genocide attacks on the Kurdish nation. Ali Hassan’s troops were ordered to shoot anything that moves, level all the villages and towns of Kurdistan to the ground, bum down anything green, and dry out every water source.
Faraj and other eyewitnesses tell us how they were taken at gunpoint from their homes to the camps of mass killing in Ar-Ar desert west of Baghdad. Parents, children, brothers, sisters, lactating mothers and newborn babies were all alike, pushed into sealed vehicles, transferred to the gun-sights of firing squads!
The Anfal massacres were performed in different stages. There were eight operations in all, before the international community could stop it: 182,000 innocent victims were shot and buried in mass graves all over Iraq.
Some eyewitnesses have been interviewed; they all tell the story of the brutal nature of the nationalist regime that knew no value of the innocent people’s lives, no love and no mercy whatsoever. They rather enjoyed the agony and struggle of death.
Only five eyewitnesses remain of those who were victims of the mass shootings, who heard the roar of bulldozers, other eyewitnesses escaped during other stages of the Anfal operations. Besides these, there are Arabs who were not victims but participants in committing the Anfal operations and have now told their stories voluntarily.
It is a blessing of God to survive a living hell created by Saddam Hussein: but it is by no means an easy task to gather your courage, bear your bleeding wounds, and leaves a mass-grave in the dark of the night and in the heart of a desert not knowing exactly where to go!
It might have been easy to escape from the troops but never from the wild hungry animals. In addition, once the survivor began his journey home, mainly along the road to Kirkuk city, he may face over ten military checkpoints.
Here, I have the honor to introduce the eyewitness: Mr. Faraj Mohammed Aziz.
Dear Faraj,
Thank you very much for attending this interview which is the first among several other interviews of survivors of the Anfal genocide operations.
With pleasure, I am willing to answer all your questions. But please, put my circumstances into consideration.
I fully agree with you. My first question is about your full name, age and your place of birth.
Well, I am Faraj Mohammed Aziz bom in 1950 in a village called Topkhana in the district of Qadr Karam, Kirkuk city.
Are you the original inhabitant of Topkhana?
Yes, my father and my grandfather are buried there.
How big was your village?
Topkhana was a small village of just twelve houses.
Have you been to school?
No, I have never been.
Can you read and write?
At present, I am learning English in the United States of America.
Faraj, I want you to go back to your memories of your childhood, your everyday life and your time in Topkhana until the notorious days of Anfal had started. However, it is your choice from which date to start.
Well, I will answer the questions that you ask, and I will do my best to be informative.
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