anfal campaign
Tags: iraq
Gas attacks under Baath that killed over 200,000 Kurds
- Has a ministry of martyrs and anfal in Erbil
- Also interesting that the word “anfal” has been transformed into a general meaning for “genocide”
Prelude
- 8 campaigns in all
- Sheikh Wasan and Balisan attacks are significant because they are the first fully documented account of chemical attacks on civilians by the Iraqi regime
Balisan bombings
- meticulous looting and bombings of villages, cleared out with dynamite and bulldozers
- No standard procedure for the collection of corpses
- either delivered to hospitals in Erbil, or ambulances would be summoned to collect the bodies from Einkawa
- one of the first rounds of chemical bombings that occured
- total: 225-400, death counts:
- 24 immediate deaths in balisan
- 103 deaths in Sheikh Wasan
- 8-9 in Raniya hospital
- 4 DOA on Erbil Emergency Hospital
- 64-142 deaths in the Amn detention center
- 2 busloads of men and boys disappeared, anywhere between 70-76
- “many children” on barren plain near Khalifan
Spring 1987 Campaign
- Destruction of >703 kuridsh villages
- Main difference from anfal afterwards:
- 1987 campaign had forced relocations, such as Narin being relocated to nahya in the southern part of Germian
- Zerdow was warned before the village itself was cleared
- Also paid compensation from the state, villagers were not physically harmed, token compensation was paid if family accepted relocation
June 8th 1987 Declaration
- First application of shoot-to-kill order with zero subsequent authorization signed by al-Majid
1987 Census
- Designed to be carried out every decade, and was used by saddam to keep track of which families aligned themselves with the government