February
23, 1988 is the date that first Anfal began. The Anfal Campaign
led me to leave my hometown - Qella-dzę - on April 14, 1988. The campaign and
my departure were a fraction of the continuous trends of annihilation and exodus
of the Iraqi Kurds that began on April 24, 1974 probably in the town of
Qella-dzę.
The events
occurred on these dates have formed a permanent arduous trends of exile–unending
odyssey of heroism and effort for a Kurdish homeland. These traumatic events in
the history of Kurdish people have taken place within the last three decades.
In total - more than six million Kurds were displaced internally, regionally
and internationally – and hundreds of thousands have been killed.
February
23, 1988 is the date that the notorious Anfal Campaign began in the
Jafetyi, Mawet-Qeywan, Sergellu regions, thereafter in the regions of Sharezwr,
Sharbazhęr, Germian, Balisan, Badinan, Balekan, Soran, Xoshnawetyi, Çemi-rezan…etc.
March 16, 1988 chemical bombs were unleashed on the town of Halabja in Iraqi
Kurdistan. On that date about 8, 000 were killed and tenth of thousands were
injured.
The
genocide of the Kurds in Iraq resulted in the execution and the disappearance of
about 200, 000 Iraqi Kurds, explosion and refugee crisis of nearly a million
Kurds. A few years later, late in March 1991- the Mass Exodus of the
Iraqi Kurds began – running from Iraqi army vengeance – about 2, 000, 000
million Kurds took refuge inside Turkey, Iran and Syria.
But April
24, 1974, and April 14, 1988 are symbolic for me. The first was the event that
gave me my first refugee status; and the second is the date that I stepped
towards gaining my second refugee status at the time of the intensification of
Anfal. Approximately 10 AM, on April 24, 1974 the Russian made Sukhi
bombers equipped with Indian Napalm bombs tormented the Kurdish town of
Qella-dzę.
The
bombing led to the evacuation of the town. My family among almost a million
Kurds from all over Iraqi Kurdistan took refuge inside Iran and we were
transported to a refugee camp called SerAAb-Germ, near Krmaşan.
We thought
we had left for good, but some years later in 1979 - when I was about 11 years
old - we returned to our destroyed house in Qella-dzę: some of the fruit-trees
in the tree-yard were cut, our house furniture were stolen, everything were
looted, the water-well which was about 25 meters deep was half-filed with dirt.
We began
to reconstruct our house in Qella-dzę in 1979. We were reconstructing
then, and we are reconstructing Kurdistan and Iraq today. It must be that ‘we’
are very good at destroying, ‘we’ need to construct continuously, but the irony
is that ‘we’ hardly have made any progress.
However,
it was good to be back in Qella-dzę, so I could take a peek at Sulaimani and
Kirkuk, my favourite Kurdish urban towns and major centers of Kurdaityi - where
my family used to live prior to my birth. In later years - when I was old
enough to explore Hewlęr and Duhôk - they gained my respect and gratitude for
their resilience and Kurdaiyti.
No, no - I
could not rest in Qella-dzę. She could not be a home for me at that time. Less
than 10 years after our return, I had to leave again; but this time alone, I had
to leave by myself on April 14, 1988. This time, I was no-longer a child to be
pulled along, this time - I made a move because I could no longer accept the
rule of the former Ba’ath regime that expelled me from school, arrested me
twice, shot at me with calibre gun, forced me into hiding for almost two years
prior to the day of my departure.
This time
- I decided to leave, but I did not know where to go, there Anfal Campaign
genocide and Kurdish ethnic cleansing were going on around me. There was a war
with Iran at its climax; all around me, the use of chemical weapons against
Kurdish civilians and Kurdish army - pęshmerge - were regular occurrences.
This time
the entire region was on fire - and I was up to the task to take the fight to
those who brought upon us the war. This time - I decided to become a fighter - a
freedom fighter, to become a pershmarga, to fight for me, for my home, for
Kurdistan, for a homeland. I left with pride. I left with a sense of oneness
and resilience; I left with no doubt that I would return free.
After my
departure - Qella-dzę could not rest for long, she could not stay-put – this
time the residents of Qella-dzę did not run and leave Qella-dzę behind like
1974. They loved Qella-dzę so much, they took her with them. In Kurdish we used
to say: ‘Qella-dzę guazraueteue’, its translation is: Qella-dzę has been moved.
In fact Qella-dzę was not moved, it was destroyed and its population was
deported into concentration camps.
This time
- Qella-dzę and I become refugees. She was sent to concentration camps near
Hewlęr and Bazian by the Iraqi regime; but I was sent to North America by the
United Nations. We shared one destiny: Qella-dzę become a refugee in Kurdistan
and I in Canada - North America. Yes, forever refugees: I am here, you are here
and there, and they are there, we are everywhere - all refugees in exile -
awaiting repatriation.
The
paradox is that, many of our good political leaders and intellectuals have spent
years of their lives and died in exile on foreign soil, away from homeland, away
from Kurdistan.
General
Mustafa Barzani - the leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party - the legendary
leader of Kurdish national movement lived nearly two decades and died in exile
in 1979. Ibrahim Ahmad, a Kurdish intellectual leader of Kurdish national
movement, a novelist, a former lawyer and a former leader of the Kurdistan
Democratic Party lived for more than two decades and died in exile in 2000.
Is it our
fate, or a coincidence that we take refuge, that most Kurds become refugees and
homeless? The patriotic leaders, Qella-dzę, and I have experienced
homelessness. But I always find home in Qella-dzę, Kurdistan is my home.
Today -
the Kurdish patriots struggle to find a way home; maybe they are not allowed to
go home, but they will. When does this homelessness end? Are we refugees
forever? No, no, not a step, this is not going to happen again. I am coming home
soon; I am coming home to build a homeland, to build a Kurdish state that lives
in peace with itself and its neighbours.
Karim
Hasan holds a B.A. in Law, an M.A. in Legal Studies, an M.A. in Sociology and
currently he is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Carleton University.
Notes:
‘There is
no Place like Home’ is a line that I have borrowed from the movie: The Wizard
of OZ.
Anfal
Campaign was a mass execution and deportation of
Iraqi Kurds, southern Kurds, and the evacuation of certain Kurdish regions.
There are contradictory reports about the starting and the ending date of
Anfal. But the evidence available allows me to conclude that campaign began
in 1986 and ended towards the end of 1989.
16 years
ago I wrote a short story on ‘heading home’. It inspired someone to write on
‘heading home’, but his nostalgia was for Newrôz. Similar to my earlier draft,
this prose is a non-fiction essay, it is a real life experience of Kurds, and
nations with similar situation to Kurds may identify themselves with these
experiences; elements of analogy and symbolic literary styles have been used in
writing it. It has been written in the memory of Anfal and the bombing
of the town of Qella-dzę.
Qella-dzę
is located within the administrative district of Pşder, the province of
Sulaimani in Iraq. The town including all the villages were destroyed by the
Iraqi regime in spring 1989 – its entire population of about 100, 000 was
deported into concentration camps near the cities of Hewlęr and Sulaimani.
Shortly after the spring 1991 exodus some residents returned. The returning
process continues, but the region remains one of the most poorly administered
regions in health care, education, housing, hydro, electricity, and swage
services. Qella-dzę has paid greatly to the Kurdish national movement; KRG has
the responsibility to pay better attention to the regions ravaged by Anfal.
As I have
explained, April 24 1974 is a symbolic date for me.
There are
other Kurdish regions, villages and townships which have been far more
brutalized than Qella-dzę, but here Qella-dzę has a symbolic connotation and
symbolizes ‘home’ for me.
