Fact Sheet

Statistics on the Kurdish Genocide Poison gas attacks were launched against

Kurdish civilian areas throughout the 1980s,

killing thousands of men, women and children

indiscriminately.

In 1988 alone, 182,000 Kurds are estimated

were disappeared, and are feared were

summarily executed and buried in mass graves

in clandestine desert areas.

At least 50,000 people were killed out of hand

in the 1988 Anfal operation, although it is

estimated this figure is probably closer to

100,000.

90% of Kurdish villages and more than 20 small

towns and cities were completely destroyed in

the Anfal operation.

In July 2011, up to 7 mass graves and 400

bodies, mostly male Kurds, were found in

southern Iraq.

Of the total victims of the Anfal operation, an

estimated 70% were men, aged approximately

15 to 50.

Thousands of women and children also

vanished. Many were taken to internment

camps where they were humiliated, executed

or died from deprivation.

Key Facts 1. In 1988, the regime of Saddam

Hussein unleashed large scale gas

attacks on civilians, in the Iraqi

Kurdistan town of Halabja – the

largest chemical attack ever against

civilians since World War I. The

attacks killed at least 5,000 civilians

and injured at least 7,000.

2. The Halabja attacks was the apex of

the military operation known as

‘Anfal’ – the Iraqi government’s

codename for a series of military

attacks mounted with the principle

aim of exterminating Iraqi Kurds.

Anfal lasted for several months from

February to September 1988.

3. In that time, human rights violations

and atrocities were committed by

Iraqi military forces on a massive

scale. Thousands of Kurdish civilians

were disappeared. Entire villages

were destroyed.

4. The Anfal operation was part of

accelerated efforts initiated since

Saddam Hussein’s ascent to power in

the 1960s to ethnically cleanse the

Kurdish population from northern

Iraq. The policy known as

“Arabisation” succeeded substantially

in driving Kurdish families out of their

homes in the north to desert areas in

the south of Iraq.

5. This policy entailed the systematic

violations of human rights and

humanitarian law, as a result of

indiscriminate attacks against the

civilian population.

6. 25 years later, the movement to

recognize Saddam’s crimes as

genocide is finally underway. Several

States have already expressed support

for recognition of the genocide,

including Sweden, Canada, the United

Kingdom, France and Norway.

Key elements of the Genocide

The Anfal operation involved a

comprehensive plan over eight stages of

military operations that was carefully

planned, organized and carried out by Iraqi

military forces.

The Anfal and Halabja operations targeted

Iraqi Kurds on account of their ethnic or

collective identity, rather than their individual

status. As a result, many thousands were

executed in cold blood and thousands of

villages and livelihood structures were

destroyed.

The principle aim of these attacks was to

ethnically cleanse the Kurdistan region of

Iraqi Kurds.

Military orders issued in June 1987 were

central to the destruction of the Kurdish

population. Order SF/4008 dated 20 June

1987, deemed civilian areas ‘prohibited

zones’ and applied a shoot-to-kill policy

against any person found in these zones.

Great numbers of men of military age were

rounded up and trucked to clandestine areas

and have never been seen again.

Like their male counterparts, women and

children were rounded up and disappeared or

held in detention camps under harsh

conditions before they were killed in cold

blood. A selection process was put into place

to determine who would die and who lived

based on the person’s ethnic group, their

place of surrender, and political stance.

Why recognition of the Genocide is important

The danger of genocide happening again in Iraq is still present and therefore it is important to remember

the past

Recognition means support for universal values of human dignity, as well as democracy and the rule of

law, values on which the EU was founded

Recognition acknowledges the legacy of massive abuses, the annihilation of Iraqi Kurds, and the tragic loss

of life

It opens the way for learning lessons from the past in order to help deter future abuses