171 Anfal Victims' Bodies Await Return to Kurdistan Region

Kurdistan 02:41 PM - 2023-07-17

MPs Karwan Yarwais and Suzan Mansour looking at the boxes which contain the remains of the Anfal victims.

In Baghdad, 171 bodies of people who died in the Anfal massacre have been waiting for four years to be transferred to the Kurdistan Region.

The bodies of 171 Anfal victims, including 72 children and the rest women, were discovered in one of the mass graves four years ago. As they wait to be returned to the Kurdistan Region, these bodies are kept at the forensic department in Baghdad.

The mass grave, which was found in Samawa, the capital of the Muthanna governorate in southern Iraq, contained the identification card of a male teenager from Chamchamal who was a victim of the infamous Anfal campaign conducted by the former Iraqi Ba'ath regime.

MP Yarwais holding the ID of the teenager.

The ID of the teenager, who was 15 years old during the Anfal catastrophe, was discovered in the mass grave of Tal Al-Sheikh in Samawa, according to Karwan Yarwais, executive of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) faction in the Iraqi parliament, who spoke to PUKMEDIA.

Yarwais reported that 171 skeletal remains were discovered in the mass grave at Tal Al-Sheikh.

DNA tests were performed on the bodies, according to Yarwais, but they remain unidentified and have not yet been returned to the Kurdistan Region due to the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) negligence, particularly during the ninth cabinet.

He pointed out that the responsibility for conducting the DNA testing that needs to be done for the families of the victims lies with the KRG and the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs, both of which are unfortunately ignoring the issue.

"According to statistics, 269 mass graves have been excavated since the liberation of Iraq, while dozens of other mass graves remain unexcavated, most of them located in the triangle between Diwaniya, Samawa, and Najaf provinces,” Yarwais added.

 

KRG discriminates in the Anfal case

In spite of the fact that it has been negligent, the KRG continues to treat the entire process unequally and does not consider it to be a single instance.

Salar Mahmoud, President of the Genocide Writers Union, told PUKMEDIA, "What worries the relatives of the Anfal victims is that the KRG discriminates and does not treat the whole case as one single case; the best proof of this is the 171 bodies that have not been returned to the Kurdistan Region in four years." 

"I call on the KRG to return the bodies to the Kurdistan Region and bury them in a worthy ceremony on the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne," he added.



PUKMEDIA