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The al-Anfal Campaign (Arabic: حملة الأنفال , Kurdish: Şallawî Enfal) was an anti-Kurdish campaign lead by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein between 1986 and 1989 (during and just after the 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 regime for a series of military campaigns against the peshmerga rebels as well as the mostly Kurdish civilian population of southern Kurdistan.

The campaign

The Anfal campaign, which began in 1986 and lasted until 1989, is said to have cost the lives of 182,000 civilians, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

The campaign was headed by Ali Hasan al-Majid, a cousin of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The Anfal campaign included the use of ground offensives, aerial bombing, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportation, concentration camps, firing squads, and chemical warfare, which earned al-Majid the nickname of "Chemical Ali".

Arabization

"Arabization," another major element of Al-Anfal, was a tactic used by Hussein's regime to drive Kurdish families out of their homes in cities like Kirkuk, which are in the valuable oil field areas. The campaign utilized heavy population redistribution, most notably in Kirkuk, the results of which now plague negotiations between Iraq's Shi'a United Iraqi Alliance and Kurdish Democratic Alliance. Hussein's Ba'athist regime built several public housing facilities in Kirkuk as part of his "Arabization," shifting poor Arabs from Iraq's southern regions to Kirkuk with the lure of inexpensive housing.

Iraq's Kurds now strongly resent Arabs still residing in Ba'ath-era Kirkuk housing, and view them as a barrier to Kirkuk's recognition as a Kurdish city (and regional seat) in an increasingly sovereign Kurdish Autonomous Region. Many Kurds believe that since Hussein's "Arabization" was a form of ethnic cleansing, they should be allowed to "undo" its campaign in post-Saddam Iraq, ie expelling those Arabs who came north as a result of Hussein's programs.

Genocide

Kurds have always referred to these attacks as the genocide. In December 2005 a court in The Hague ruled that the killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq in the 1980s was an act of genocide .

According to the 1948 Geneva Convention, genocide is defined as "acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The Dutch court said it considered "legally and convincingly proven that the Kurdish population meets requirement under Genocide Conventions as an ethnic group. The court has no other conclusion than that these attacks were committed with the intent to destroy the Kurdish population of Iraq."

Trial

In an interview broadcast on Iraqi television on September 6, 2005, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said that judges had directly extracted confessions from Saddam Hussein that he had ordered mass killings and other "crimes" during his regime and that he deserves to die. Two days later, Saddam's lawyer denied that he had confessed.

Figures

• Ba'ath Party eliminated 3,827 villages, including 1,274 directly as a result of the Anfal campaign
• 1,754 schools destroyed
• 2,450 mosques destroyed
• 48 churches destroyed
• 270 hospitals destroyed
• around 75% of villages wiped out

See also

• 1988 Anfal campaign
• Halabja poison gas attack

External links

• GENOCIDE IN IRAQ: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds, extensive Human Rights Watch report
• The Anfal Campaign(Iraqi Kurdistan), 1988

• History of Iraq
• History of the Kurds