ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Among the many tragic stories from the Baath regime’s 1983 genocide against the Barzani tribe is that of Khasraw Mohammed, who chose a personal path of resistance by replanting landmines to target the toppled Iraqi regime’s soldiers. On July 31, 1983, Iraq's former Baathist regime, led by ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, abducted and disappeared around 8,000 Barzani men and boys. Thousands were forcibly taken from the Zagros Mountains and transported to southern Iraqi deserts, where many were executed. Khasraw’s father, Mohammed Mirkhan, and two of his brothers, Sultan and Shawkat, were among those killed. "After the martyrdom of my father and two brothers, my brother Khasraw began collecting and replanting mines in the path of Baathist soldiers to avenge them," his brother, Asaad,told Rudaw. Following the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), the Baath regime heavily mined the Kurdistan Region’s borders. Born in 1971, Khasraw married in 1988 and had one daughter, who is now a university lecturer and PhD candidate. For nearly six years, Khasraw repurposed the Baath regime’s landmines to retaliate against Iraqi forces. “He was successful in this and targeted the Baathist enemy multiple times,” Asaad said. However, in 1989, Khasraw was killed when one of the mines exploded while he was handling it. The campaign against the Barzanis was part of Saddam’s broader Anfal campaign, which resulted in the deaths of more than 182,000 Kurds and the destruction of over 4,500 villages. The campaign culminated in the notorious 1988 chemical attack on Halabja. Since then, the remains of many Barzani victims have been recovered from Iraqi deserts and buried throughout the Kurdistan Region. These include 1,010 victims in Chamchamal, 399 in Garmian, 80 in Topzawa south of the Kurdistan Region, as well as 696 in Badinan and 256 in Dukan in the Region’s north. On Thursday, Kurdish leaders commemorated the 42nd anniversary of the attack on the Barzanis. Speaking at the event, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said the Baathist regime failed to "subjugate the people of the Kurdistan Region and erase their existence" due to the Kurdish people’s "resilience and determination." He urged the Iraqi government to compensate the victims’ families. The atrocity was an act of collective punishment against the Barzanis, whose leaders had been active in Kurdish revolts against the Iraqi regime. While men and boys were the primary targets, women, children, and the elderly also suffered greatly. Although Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court has recognized the Anfal campaign as genocide, survivors say little has been done to provide justice or reparations. The genocide has yet to receive widespread recognition from the international community. Soran Hussein contributed to this report.
