Survivors of Kureme

In 1988 the Iraqi army launched a ferocious attack on Kurdish communities south of the Turkish border. Fleeing towards Turkey, the villagers of Kureme found their route blocked by Iraqi soldiers and were captured. The male villagers were put in front of a firing squad – yet six survived to tell their story.

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‘Everyone who knew me shut their door in my face’

In the Garmiyan region of Iraq more women and children died in Saddam's Third Anfal than in any other Anfal campaign. FARS AZIZ AHMED survived the attack and describes how he saved his family from certain death.

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‘My brother had to cut my baby’s umbilical cord with a used razor blade’

The threat of chemical attacks made many Kurds flee their homes east of Kirkuk. ASMAR MOHAMMED JABAR explains how she escaped from Mahabaram village on the back of a tractor, only to give birth hours later.

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‘No one heard me jump from the lorry because of all the screaming’

Kurdish villagers risked their lives to escape the Iraqis. TOOBA HAMID RASUL describes how she leapt from a moving army vehicle with her baby tied to her back.

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‘“You betrayed your nation,” I told Saddam Hussein at his trial’

During Saddam's trial in Baghdad, Kurdish Anfal survivors confronted the former Iraqi leader. One of them was MAHMOUD RASUL MUSTAFA, who last saw his wife, three sons and two daughters in a prison camp near Kirkuk.

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‘Prisoners were forced to cover corpses with sand, yet the dogs dug them up’

Villagers from JALEMORT, located in the Lesser Zab valley, remember how they were attacked by the Iraqi army and then imprisoned in the southern deserts where many died.

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‘My unborn baby died in Dibs prison: I carried him in my womb for a month afterwards’

JWAN ABDULKARIM JABAR of Mahabaram village says her heart is still broken after losing almost all her close relatives during Anfal.

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‘Anyone could be tortured: it made no difference if you were 13 or 70 years old’

When the Iraqis gassed villages just south of the Turkish border, close-knit Kurdish communities fragmented. SHUKRI HASI ABDULLAH, who was from Guze village in the Gara mountains, says it was everyone for himself.

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‘All my relatives were killed and now my children only have me’

Kani Bee in the Lesser Zab valley lost 57 people during Anfal. ALFIA HAMZA QADIR was preparing a meal for peshmerga guests when she was warned Iraqi soldiers were approaching her home.

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