KRG renews call for compensation over crimes committed under former Baath regime

ERBIL – The Kurdistan Regional Government said the federal government has not met its constitutional obligation to compensate victims of Baath-era crimes against Kurds, citing official estimates that put the damages at “hundreds of billions of dollars.”

In a statement issued by the KRG Department of Media and Information, the government said that “for decades under the previous Iraqi regime, the people of Kurdistan suffered crimes including genocide, forced displacement, and the systematic erasure of their identity,” adding that “to this day, the federal government has not fulfilled its obligation to compensate the victims.”

The KRG said scientific and financial assessments estimated human losses at more than $306 billion, material losses at about $33 billion, environmental and indirect damages at $10 billion, losses from what it called “deliberate neglect and systematic marginalisation” at $30 billion, and reconstruction costs at $5 billion.

The statement cited Articles 112 and 132 of Iraq’s constitution, saying they “clearly mandate that the Iraqi government compensate those affected by the previous regime, including the people of Kurdistan,” and noted that more than 23 years after the regime’s fall, “no substantive steps have been taken to provide either material or moral compensation.”

The statement listed major crimes committed against Kurds, beginning with the deportation of Feyli Kurds in 1970. It said “around 300,000 Feyli Kurds were forcibly deported to Iran, and 9,000 of their young members disappeared,” while their property and wealth were confiscated.

It also referenced the 1983 Barzani mass killings campaign, stating that “approximately 8,000 Barzani men and youths were brutally buried alive in the deserts of southern Iraq,” as well as the 1987 chemical attack on Balisan and Sheikh Wasan, which it said killed 134 civilians and led to the arrest and burial alive of 82 wounded men.

According to the statement, the 1988 Anfal genocide resulted in the disappearance of 182,000 civilians and the destruction of 4,500 villages, while the chemical attack on Halabja on March 16, 1988, killed 5,000 people and injured 10,000 others.

The KRG said it continues “its legal and diplomatic efforts to enforce these constitutional rights” and called on the federal government and the international community “to fulfil their legal and moral responsibilities and ensure justice for the people of Kurdistan.”