Kurds Recall Their '88 Flight to Mountains

Their ordeal in Iraq is the focus of a = genocide=20 trial involving Hussein that is to start today.

By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff = Writer
August=20 21, 2006

SAMOOD, Iraq =97 Rumors of war rumbled = across=20 Kurdistan's grassy hilltops.

Legions of Saddam Hussein's = troops=20 were coming in tanks, trucks and airplanes to crush the Kurds'=20 long-festering uprising. Filled with dread, Shazada Saeed and her = family=20 prepared to do what Kurds had always done to escape the brutality = of their=20 mightier Arab, Turkish and Persian neighbors.

Once the bombing started, = they=20 scrambled into the crevices and caves of the snowy peaks that had = long=20 sheltered them.

"The artillery shelling was so heavy we had = to=20 run," said Saeed, who now lives in this small Kurdish town. "We = ran to the=20 mountains, because they have always been safe."

The Kurds, = the=20 saying goes, have no friends other than the mountains. But the = mountains=20 offered scant protection during Hussein's months-long 1988 "Anfal" = campaign in the country's north. The campaign is the subject of a = genocide=20 trial that is to begin today.

"The traditional escape route = didn't=20 work," said Fareed Asasard, head of the Kurdish Strategic Studies = Center,=20 a think tank in the Kurdistan city of Sulaymaniya.

At least = 50,000=20 men, women and children were allegedly slaughtered in a = counterinsurgency=20 campaign that targeted antigovernment Kurdish militias as well as = women=20 and children. Bombs loaded with mustard and nerve gas were = allegedly=20 dropped on dozens of villages. Kurds were deported to transit = camps and=20 then taken to the desert, where they were reportedly shot and = buried in=20 mass graves or left to die of starvation and exposure.

A=20 prosecution team of 19 jurists will present witnesses, documents, = tape=20 recordings and forensic evidence in an attempt to prove that = Hussein and=20 six other codefendants, including his cousin Ali Hassan Majid, = also known=20 as Chemical Ali, committed genocide, crimes against humanity and = war=20 crimes.

The defense is expected to argue that the Anfal, = which=20 means "spoils of war" in Arabic, was a perfectly legal and crucial = operation to crush a rebellion threatening the Baghdad government = at a=20 time of war with Iran. Defense lawyers will say that Iran, and not = Iraq,=20 used the chemical weapons, which are forbidden under international = law.

But prosecutors will counter that the six-month Anfal = campaign=20 ranks as a singular moment in recent history: an attempt to crush = the=20 lives, towns and spirit of the country's Kurdish = minority.

"The=20 purpose of Anfal was to put an end to 70 years of Kurdish = insurgency=20 against the central Iraqi state," said Joost Hiltermann, coauthor = of a=20 landmark 1993 study of the Anfal campaign for Human Rights Watch. = "The=20 method chosen was to destroy the Kurdish countryside. All villages = were=20 razed and, especially in the rural hinterland of oil-rich Kirkuk, = most=20 villagers were killed: men, women and children."

In its = human toll,=20 the Anfal's scope dwarfs that of the first war-crimes trial = against the=20 former Iraqi president. In that case, Hussein faces the death = penalty in=20 the killings of 148 Shiite Muslim villagers following a 1982 = attempt on=20 his life; a verdict is expected this fall.

The second trial = represents a moment of vindication for Kurds, who once were an = oppressed=20 minority but now rule an increasingly prosperous northern enclave = and=20 control key posts in Baghdad.

Kurds have long fought = violently for=20 autonomy, collaborating with Tehran during the 1980s Iran-Iraq = war.=20 Hussein appointed his cousin Majid as the de facto viceroy over = the north=20 in 1987 to put down their rebellion, and the Anfal campaign = depended on a=20 legal infrastructure that systematically sought to outlaw the = Kurds'=20 existence in certain areas beyond government control and = annihilate them=20 and their livelihoods, prosecutors are expected to = argue.

The=20 military campaign began with an offensive against the strongholds = of=20 Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, now president of Iraq, north of = Sulaymaniya=20 on Feb. 23, 1988. It didn't end until Hussein's army pushed into = the=20 northernmost stretches of Iraq on Sept. 8.

Heavy snowfalls=20 blanketed Kurdistan in the winter that began 1988, and the spring = thaw=20 made the fields and valleys bloom with bountiful harvests. But = trouble=20 loomed. Already, two stages of the Anfal campaign had been = completed and=20 word of a third, stepped-up campaign against Kurds came through = the=20 outlawed radio of the peshmerga militias and from villagers = fleeing=20 nearby areas.

"We knew something was coming," said Saeed, = who had=20 moved to her husband's rural village, Kani Qader, 30 miles = northwest of=20 Samood, after their marriage in 1986. "There were daily attacks on = the=20 village."

Saeed was several months pregnant when word came = from=20 nearby villagers that a phalanx of ground troops was headed toward = Kani=20 Qader. She and her husband, Hussein, grabbed their 10-month-old = daughter=20 and headed up the mountains toward a canyon area nearby, hiding = beneath=20 tree cover to evade reconnaissance planes.

"We heard that = those who=20 survived were those who fled their villages," she = said.

They made=20 their way to a cavernous gorge filled with caves and large rocks, = where=20 they were joined by hundreds of other villagers from Kani Qader = and nearby=20 hamlets.

"The peshmerga were in the mountains," said = Ahmad=20 Amin Hossein, a 59-year-old survivor of the Anfal campaign. "We = thought it=20 would be safer." Shivering in the cold and trying to preserve the = few=20 scraps of food they managed to keep with them, the families camped = out for=20 four days and four nights before the soldiers arrived.

They = came in=20 tanks and armored vehicles. They had requisitioned trucks and = buses. Among=20 them were Kurdish collaborators, the so-called Jahsh militia. They = left=20 little possibility for escape.

"They came like a flood, = from all=20 directions," Saeed said.

They stormed the terrified = villagers, and=20 separated the men from the women, children and elderly. Hussein = Saeed=20 spoke to her one last time before he was taken away forever: = "Please take=20 care of my daughter."

The trucks took the prisoners into a=20 nightmarish gulag of camps that few survived. But Shazada Saeed = and her=20 daughter were lucky =97 she spotted her brother-in-law in a car. = One of his=20 relatives was a member of the Jahsh and let him spirit her away. = Saeed and=20 her tiny daughter spent months in hiding. Despondent and = terrified, she=20 had a miscarriage.

Different terrors faced the women who = didn't get=20 away. Trapped by Iraqi soldiers after days on foot heading toward = the=20 mountains of Iran, Khawer Ismail Jabah and her family were rounded = up,=20 loaded onto a truck and taken to several of the camps, which have = become=20 synonymous with degradation and misery to the Kurds.

Jabah = said she=20 and her relatives were beaten as they were ordered to climb into = the=20 trucks. On the road the children wept, begging for food and water. = After=20 four days of stops and starts, she said, they reached Topzawa, a = harsh=20 military base south of Kirkuk.

The soldiers came with hoses = and=20 cables and began herding the prisoners, separating the men from = the women=20 and children, jotting down their names as they were taken=20 inside.

In Topzawa, Jabah lost track of her husband. She = never saw=20 him again. Many of the men were taken to remote desert outposts = west of=20 Mosul or in Sunni-dominated Al Anbar province, ordered to kneel = before=20 freshly dug trenches and gunned down. Their remains have been = discovered=20 in numerous mass grave sites that have been excavated and analyzed = as part=20 of the trial investigation.

A few wounded men managed to = struggle=20 out of the mounds of bodies and make their way through the desert = back to=20 Kurdistan, where they have been interviewed by human rights=20 investigators.

Many of the elderly were dispatched to = Nograt=20 Salman, a desert encampment of southern Iraq that was to be their = home.=20 After a grueling trip in the summer heat without food or water, = they were=20 dumped in the desert prison. There was little hope of escape. The = doors=20 were padlocked and the compound surrounded by guards, barbed wire = and=20 miles of forbidding desert.

Finally, on Aug. 20, 1988, Iran = and=20 Iraq declared a cease-fire in their eight-year war. With the = Kurdish=20 resistance all but crushed, Hussein declared an amnesty for all = Iraqi=20 Kurds 17 days later.

Jabah and other Kurds began trickling = home=20 from prisons. Those in hiding, like Saeed, emerged from the = shadows,=20 picking up the wreckage of their lives. But even then they were = ordered to=20 report regularly to political offices, where they were subjected = to=20 humiliating interrogations.

They weren't really free until = more=20 than two years later, in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. = The 1991=20 Kurdish uprising and the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish = enclave=20 under the protection of a U.S.-British no-fly zone washed away = Baghdad's=20 rule over much of Iraqi Kurdistan and permitted the unearthing of=20 documents and witnesses to the Anfal campaign.

Saeed, Jabah = and=20 other women formed an association for Anfal victims in the Samood = area,=20 which was once a camp for displaced Kurdish victims of the Anfal. = Judges=20 and prosecutors involved in the prosecution have visited them and=20 collected their stories.

The women meet regularly in the=20 now-crumbling concrete edifice where they once endured regular=20 interrogations.

"I know all the survivors' names by heart," = said=20 Saeed, whose red hair frames a gaunt, weathered face. "I also know = their=20 stories by heart."

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