Calls for more humane process

Kurdish families decry crude methods in Anfal genocide exhumations

2024-09-03 | 16:24

KOYA — Families of victims from the Anfal genocide in the Koya district of Erbil have voiced strong objections to the methods being used to exhume the remains of their loved ones. They argue that the current process, involving shovels and excavators, mirrors the brutality of the original atrocities and fails to respect the dignity of those who perished.

The Anfal campaign, orchestrated by Iraq’s Ba’ath regime between February and September 1988, sought to eliminate the Kurdish population through a series of military operations. Over 50,000 to 100,000 Kurds were killed, according to Human Rights Watch, though Kurdish sources suggest the number could be as high as 182,000.

Fuad Qadir, the only survivor from his family during the Anfal genocide, expressed his outrage at the exhumation process. “Our loved ones were buried alive with shovels during the Anfal campaign, and now they are being unearthed in a similarly inhumane and unscientific manner, using shovels and excavators.” Qadir told 964media.

The controversy escalated after a mass grave was uncovered in late August in the Al-Sheikhiyah area of Al-Salman district, within Muthanna Governorate’s capital, Samawah. The grave, containing the remains of approximately 90 Kurdish victims—including women, children, and the elderly—was initially discovered in 2018. A team comprising members from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Martyrs Foundation, and several Iraqi government departments began the excavation recently, triggering the families’ distress.

The families are urgently calling on both the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Iraqi federal government to intervene and ensure a more respectful and scientific approach to exhumations. “Come to our aid and stop this inhumane act,” the families pleaded.

Photographs reveal that shovels and excavators have been used during the exhumation process, sparking fears that bones and other remains may be fractured or destroyed in the process.

In Koya district alone, 866 people were documented as victims of the Anfal campaign. However, only 172 bodies have been recovered to date.

Earlier this year, in January, the remains of 172 Anfal victims were transported from Baghdad to the Kurdistan Region. These remains, uncovered after heavy rains and flooding exposed their graves in the Samawah desert, were later identified by Baghdad’s Forensic Medicine Department and reburied at the Monument of the Martyrs in Chamchamal, Sulaymaniyah governorate.