Nothing is like before for them

Germiyan – The Anfal operations launched on February 23, 1987 was extended to Germiyan, Sulaymaniyah, Zaxo and Behdinan. During those operations, the Kurdistan Region was completely burned and destroyed; chemical weapons were used particularly in Halabja and Şanexşî, Seysenan Dokan, Caferan, Ekser and Zêwa Şêwan villages. Nothing is like before for the Kurds again after the Anfal operations. Massacres, destruction, migration and still bleeding wounds...

There is a sentence saying, “Wherever you go, there you are”. The most unbearable thing is searching for your missing loved ones even if years have passed… Şahzade Hisên Mihemed and Sabriye Ehmed Salim are two women looking for their missing loved ones.

“I was held in prison for two years”

Şahzade Hisên Mihemed is from Qadirkerem town of Germiyan region in Iraqi Kurdistan. She is one of the witnesses of the Anfal Genocide. She told us that the Ba'athist regime imposed pressures on her family after 1970 and that process continued with the Anfal operations. When the Anfal operations were launched, Şahzade Hisên Mihemed was newly married. “It had been a year and 10 months since I got married. I had a ten-month-old daughter and I was pregnant. They took my husband. I had a miscarriage in fear. I was left alone with my daughter,” said Şahzade Hisên Mihemed.

Şahzade Hisên Mihemed continued to talk about the operations as follows;

“When the KDP organized itself, my brother joined them and became a peshmerga. The regime's secret agents were everywhere. They got information about families having contact with the Peshmerga and they immediately attacked those families. They also raided our house because my brother was a Peshmerga member. They arrested all my family members, including children, and held them in prison. We were held in a small room of six square meters along with 80 people. Four women and their children were also held in the room. The cries of the children were heard everywhere. I was held in prison for two years. My brother was martyred and his body was captured by the regime forces. After my brother was martyred, I shouldered the burden.”

“We hardly found food”

Like every Kurd, Şahzade and her family faced many difficulties and pain. They resisted the pressures of the Ba'athist regime in order to not lose their identity, existence and leave their land. The people had to show their ID cards to buy even a loaf of bread, “The regime soldiers blockaded Qadirkerem. Our names were written in a list to buy even a loaf of bread. At that time, we hardly found food. I preferred going hunger to not ask for a loaf of bread from them. I neither wanted to see them nor to talk with them. They arbitrarily arrested people and held them in prison. They arrested all of our relatives.

“I was left alone with my 10-month-old daughter in my arms”

 “I ran, ran, ran to not be escaped by them,” said Şahzade when she recalled those days. She kept talking about the past as follows;

“I got married in June 1986 but I haven’t experienced a happy day. Every day, warplanes of the regime dropped bombs on us. When they understood that they couldn’t annihilate us with airstrikes, they launched ground operations. When they raided our house, I was married for a year and ten months. They collected everyone in the center and took them in groups. We were surrounded by soldiers. They forcibly put people in military vehicles and took them away. No one could protect anyone. They took my husband away and I haven’t received any news from him since then. I had a miscarriage in fear; I was left alone with my 10-month-old daughter in my arms. I was in fear because I thought they would take me away, too. My daughter was only 10-month-old.”

“I have waited for him for 34 years…”

Şahzade has been living for years fearing what happened in Anfal to be repeated again. She has waited for her husband for years,” I have waited for him for 34 years. I still have hope. Sometimes, I tell myself that he is an old man now, I will recognize him if he comes back. I still remember him very well. I will recognize him if he comes back even if he gets older.”

“I will keep following the trial”

Being a witness of the Anfal Genocide, Şahzade still demands justice for those who were killed in the genocide.  She joined the hearings of the trial of the Anfal Genocide held in Germany in 2008, 2011, and 2015. “I will keep following the trial as long as I breathe,” said Şahzade demanding the prosecution of persons responsible for the genocide. She also called on the Kurdistan Regional Government to draw more attention to the memory of the missing people in Anfal and the relatives of those who lost their lives in Anfal.

Sabriye Ehmed Salim: It was like we were in a film

“That day was like we were in a film. The regime soldiers carried out a raid on the village and we found ourselves in a detention camp built in Dibis. We couldn’t go out, we were surrounded by soldiers,” said Sabriye Ehmed Salim to tell what they had faced. Sabriye is from Dawayan village of the Germiyan region. She and her children were held in a detention camp built by the Ba'athist regime in the Dibis district of Kirkuk for months.

“I don’t know how we survived, maybe by chance…”

Sabiye began to talk about her life in Dawayan before the genocide, “First the sun rose and then the life started. Before the sunrise, everyone woke up to greet the sun. If someone woke up after the sunrise, the person felt like he/she committed a sin. The people had a culture of solidarity; each family went to harvest their fields. They launched the Anfal operation to destroy the culture of common life and annihilate the Kurds. They had an order to burn all houses. Suddenly, we found ourselves amid chemical gases and military operations. I don’t know how we survived, maybe by chance…”

 “We couldn’t even take a breath...”

Even though years have passed, Sabiye’s voice and hands were shaking while talking about those days. She had difficulties talking about those days. She decided to talk about what had happened in Anfal in order to be passed down from generation to generation;

“When the soldiers raided our village, we were afraid of their angered eyes. They attacked everywhere. They detained all my family members. They were sent to different districts. They sent me and my children to Sîrwah, we stayed there for two days. Theni they took us to the Dibis district of Kirkuk. We were held in a detention camp for six months. Soldiers were everywhere; we couldn’t even take a breath. There was no way to escape. We were hungry for days. They didn’t give us anything to cover our bodies in order to protect ourselves in cold weather. We all got sick in that camp.  When some people felt worse, they were taken to the military hospital in Dibis.”

22 members of her family are still missing and no one knows where they are. “They deserve a grave,” said Sabiye, who still has hopes to find the bones of her relatives. The Iraqi Ba'athist regime granted an amnesty to children and women held in the camp and those who survived the genocide were released.

“We were happy to be released but we were also in fear of what we would face. A young Turkmen girl announced the amnesty on the TV and we heard the news. I felt so happy and I began to shed tears of joy. But we still had a doubt because we didn’t know what would happen to us. After two days, the soldiers visited from ward to ward and told us we were free. Then, they released us. We returned to our village but nothing was like before. Everything was in ruin. Everywhere smelt of death. We couldn’t live there anymore. Building a new life was very difficult. So, we left there and now I live with my children in Kelar.

Sabriye lost her husband and 22 relatives and nothing is like before for her. Sabiye has been looking for her relatives. She always wears the scarf left by her husband. She always visits the cemetery of the nameless, built for those who were killed in the Anfal Genocide, to find the graves of her relatives.  

Tomorrow: She keeps her husband’s nail for years