Unveiling the Anfal mural in Garmian's Kalar town

Genocide‌‌ 10:08 AM - 2021-04-20

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The Monday, the Anfal mural was unveiled in Sarqla sub-district of Kalar district within the Garmian Administration of the Kurdistan Region.

 

The ceremony took place in the presence of Pola Sirwan Talabani, Head of PUK's Center in Garmian, and a number of party officials, administrators, and the families of the martyrs and Anfal in the Kalar district.

 

The mural was created by the German Aid Organization in dedication to the victims of the Anfal, where a number of five mothers of the Anfal victims were honored by Mrs. Catherine, the head of the organization.

 

History of Anfal

 

The Anfal Campaign, also known as the Kurdish Genocide, Operation Anfal or simply Anfal, was a genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people (and other non-Arab populations) in northern Iraq, led by the fallen Ba'athist Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and headed by Ali Hassan al-Majid or Chemical Ali (who executed the Halabja chemical attack) in the final stages of Iran-Iraq War. The campaign takes its name from Surat al-Anfal in the Qur'an, which was used as a code name by the former Iraqi Baathist government for a series of systematic attacks against the Kurdish population of northern Iraq, conducted between 1986 and 1989 and culminating in 1988. The campaign also targeted other minority communities in Iraq including Assyrians, Shabaks, Iraqi Turkmens, Yazidis, Jews, Mandeans, and many villages belonging to these ethnic groups were also destroyed.

 

Over 180,000 Kurds were killed in the campaign.

 

Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom officially recognize the Anfal campaign as genocide. On December 5, 2012, Swedish parliament Riksdag adopted a resolution by the Green party to officially recognize Anfal as genocide. The resolution was passed by all 349 members of parliament.  On February 28, 2013, British House of Commons formally recognized the Anfal as genocide following a campaign led by Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi.

 

The Anfal campaign carried out by the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein against the Kurdish civilian population began on February 22, 1988, and continued until September 6 of the same year, and is considered one of the most dangerous pages of government mass killing in the history of Baathist rule in Iraq. The army and regular forces directly, including (the First Corps, which was based in Kirkuk, the Fifth Corps, which was based in Erbil), the Air Force, the Special Forces, the Republican Guard, the Commando Forces, the security and intelligence services, military intelligence, the chemical and biological weapons departments, in addition to all service departments that have been put in the service of carrying out these operations.

 

 

 

Reported by Omar Awara

PUKmedia