Anfal surgery

Wall in memory of the Anfal operation in Akrê

Anfal operation ( Arabic حملة الأنفال, DMG Ḥamlat al-Anfāl ) is the name used by Iraq for the genocidal measures carried out in eight phases between 1988 and 1989 by the Iraqi Baath regime under Saddam Hussein against the Kurdish population and other minorities such as the Assyrians and Chaldeans in northern Iraq . The Kurdish population, oppressed by the regime, had sided with Tehran since 1986 in the Iran-Iraq war . Great Britain , Sweden and Norway have officially recognized the destruction of thousands of Kurdish villages, the complete restructuring of the agrarian economy into dependent and unproductive refugee camps and organized mass murder as genocide according to the UN Genocide Convention of 1948.

The Anfal operation was part of the government's measures against Kurds, which began in 1975 with mass deportations to the Turkish border.

designation

The name Anfal is based on the name of the eighth surah of the Koran and means "booty". The choice of a religious name should encourage the approval of religious Sunnis.

Anfal operation against the Kurds and other minorities

The name of the operation indicates the stigma of those affected as unbelievers. As part of the Arabization policy, the regime also portrayed the Kurds as “enemies of the people”. The regime tried to consolidate its power through bloody repression and totalitarian surveillance. An eye symbol was set up in every town center, telephone calls were tapped and countless people were spied on.

Kurdish sources, international observers and UNESCO put the number of those murdered in the Anfal operation at 180,000. The Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein at the time considered the number to be exaggerated and set 100,000 victims as the maximum; Human Rights Watch / Middle East estimates the number at 50,000 - 100,000. At least 5,000 to 8,000 members of the Barzanis tribe alone were deported and murdered.

Ali Hasan al-Majid , the head of the operation, gave orders during the campaign that all men between the ages of 15 and 70 be executed. Many children and women also fell victim to the extermination campaign. From August 25 to 28, villages were bombarded with poison gas by helicopter . Around 4,000 villages were destroyed in the Kurdish part of Iraq.

Numerous deliveries from foreign companies in the chemical equipment plant industry had previously enabled Iraq to produce this gas itself. UN inspectors determined that 52.6% of the equipment for Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons production came from Germany.

The poison gas attack on Halabja , which historically was not planned as part of the Anfal operation, but favored its implementation, gained particular fame . In this action on March 16 and 17, 1988 alone, up to 5,000 Kurds were killed. As a result, the Kurds who survived Halabjas were killed or deported.

Prosecution

On June 23, 2007, Ali Hasan al-Majid , former defense minister and military commander, and two co-defendants, Sultan Haschim Ahmad al-Jaburi, former defense minister, and Hussayn Raschid Muhammad, former deputy chief of operations for the armed forces, were prosecuted for their involvement in the Anfal operation and the associated mass murder sentenced to death by hanging . Farhan Mutlaq al-Jaburi, former head of the Military Intelligence Bureau of Eastern Iraq, and Sabir Abd al-Aziz al-Duri, former director of the Military Intelligence Service, were sentenced to life imprisonment . The accused Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, former governor of Mosul and head of the Northern Iraq Affairs Committee, was acquitted of the charges for lack of evidence.

Differentiation between Operation Anfal and the poison gas attack on Halabja

According to the Spiegel, Western experts do not count the gas attack in Halabja as a genocide, as Iranian troops had previously conquered the city, so that the use of the poison gas was a consequence of the war. Anfal is an independently planned genocide.

literature

• Genocide in Iraq. The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds , Human Rights Watch, New York · Washington · Los Angeles · London 1993, ISBN 1-56432-108-8 ( online )

Individual evidence

1. ^ British Parliament officially recognizes 'Kurdish Genocide' In: Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved April 11, 2013
2. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.genocidewatch.org/images/Iraq_07_02_Anfal_The_Iraqi_State_s_Genocide_against_the_Kurds.pdf
3. ^ Omar Sinan: Iraq to hang 'Chemical Ali' . In: Associated Press , Tampa Bay Times , June 25, 2007. Retrieved December 3, 2015. 
4. ↑ The eighth sura of the Koran - al-Anfal - praises the war against the unbelievers. Saddam Hussein made them a code name for collection camps, poison gas bombs, shootings, mass graves. While the West was still supporting him, Iraq's dictator committed genocide against the Kurds: al-Anfal: The Sura of Death . In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on September 27, 2018]).
5. ^ New York Times : The Means to Make the Poisons Came From the West , April 13, 2003
6. ↑ The Gassing of Halabja Turned the Card on the Kurds in 1988 In: rudaw.net . Retrieved March 16, 2014.
7. ^ Society for Threatened Peoples calls for a German and European reconstruction program for Halabja . ( gfbv.de [accessed on February 18, 2017]).
8. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Iraqi poison gas attack: smell of garbage and sweet apples - SPIEGEL ONLINE - one day. Retrieved February 18, 2017 . 

Web links

• “Anfal Memorial Forum”: Project by the Iraqi Kurdistan organization HAUKARI eV with survivors of the Anfal operations