What is Anfal?
Anfal (‘Spoils of War’) is the name of the eighth sura of the Koran. This is also the name the Iraqis gave to a series of genocidal military actions between late February and early September 1988 which led to the deaths of up to 182,000 rural Kurds. In this series of film testimonials survivors describe their experiences of Anfal.
The village children gave me the names of their friends who had disappeared
Ali Hassan Majid said "We'll destroy Kurdistan with chemical weapons"
My eyes were burning and my body began to shiver as I lost my sight
I wanted to save my baby son, but before we got to the base his arms went limp
As I left the village, I saw my uncle and cousin embracing in death
We didn't know what chemicals weapons were but soon we realised we couldn't breathe
The Ba'ath thought a chemical attack would break the people's spirit
I begged my son to go back and see if anyone had survived
He raised a white veil to signal our surrender but then they started shooting
"Run away," they shouted. "They've dropped chemicals and everybody's dead!"
We didn't expect an attack on that scale
My brave, courageous wife decided to go to Baghdad and face the biggest dictator
I was with my son when a plane dropped napalm
"Don't go outside, they're using chemicals," he said
Members of my family were "Anfaled" and we still don't know where their graves are
Women and children were screaming, animals distressed: it felt like the end of the world
The Iraqis razed this village to the ground
Peshmerga
Peshmerga means literally ‘those who face death.’ The term is believed to have been coined just after the short-lived Kurdistan Republic of Mahabad was set up in Iran in 1946. It refers to Kurdish freedom fighters who resisted oppressive regimes across the Middle East.
"The rest are innocent," said my father. "I'm the only peshmerga here. Do what you want with me"
The Iraqis fired 650 chemical shells at the PUK headquarters in one day
I was on watch and I thought I'd seen a shining star, but it was a rocket
Behind the mountain we saw Iranian and Iraqi conscripts who had frozen to death in the snow
Some peshmerga said they'd rather kill themselves with a grenade than retreat
The route to the Iranian border was blocked by snow so the peshmerga shovelled for two weeks
With the constant bombing it was impossible to hold a funeral for my brother
The bodies had been there for years because the snow never melts
God says the mentally ill cannot sin, but I saw Iraqi soldiers set one sick man on fire
It was a psychological problem: the peshmerga had no knowledge of chemical weapons
I prepared for the worst. I tore up our ID cards so if we died they wouldn’t know who we were
We used gas canisters and rocket propelled grenades to blow up our base
Our battalion was so exhausted that some peshmerga fell asleep while walking
The peshmerga were exhausted by the chemical attacks
Arabisation
In 1963, the ruling Ba’ath Party moved to establish Arab control over the oil rich territories around Kirkuk. It forced Kurdish, Turkman and Assyrian farmers off their lands and replaced them with Arab settlers. This process continued intermittently for almost four decades.
Arab militia men killed my father in front of me. We were unarmed and defenceless
We stood on a sea of oil in an area populated 100% by Kurds. So the Ba'ath plotted to remove them
Arab villagers joined the National Guard because at that time everyone wanted to save their own skin
After the fall of Saddam we came back home to Qara Dara, but the Arabs still control our lands
"This isn't the time," said my mother. "The National Guards are coming and they will behead us"
The Kurds had no option but to run for the mountains with their wives and children
Iraqi soldiers took us away in trucks, before dumping us miles away from home
The Arabs said, "This is our land now." But it belonged to my grandfather and I have the document to prove it
The judge ruled the land must be returned. But the Arabs say, "We won't give it back without orders from Baghdad"
The Iraqi authorities searched for us in Kirkuk, and expelled us to Erbil if they found us
Local Arabs were told to loot us: they took our livestock, occupied our village, and killed my uncle
It was a miserable life but it was our land. If a bird leaves its nest, doesn't it still want to return?
We rebuilt 70 houses but the Iraqis drove us out again and transferred our land to Arabs
The Ba’athist Regime Targets the Kurds
Kurdish villages had to adapt to being attacked by Iraqi government forces in the late 1970s and 1980s after the Iraqi regime grew increasingly aggressive towards its own population.
They took us to the execution site twice and gave us our last rites
The government ordered all villages, churches and mosques in Kurdistan to be demolished
The secret police blindfolded me and pulled me into the car
Birds were falling to the ground and cats were dizzy and fainting
I was sentenced to 15 years in Abu Ghraib prison without investigation
If we lit a lamp they would bomb us, so we moved in darkness
Many peshmerga surrendered while some fled to Iran
We chose this place for a hospital as the mountains have no names on Iraqi military maps
Our mule was killed by a bomb in the courtyard
My pregnant sister tried to get to the roof but collapsed with her infant daughter. Both died.
