Survivors of the Mass Graves of the Anfal Genocide

Survivors of the Mass Graves of the Anfal Genocide

Introduction

In the history of twentieth-century genocides, the testimony of survivors is one of the most important sources for preserving truth, resisting denial, and constructing a human history of mass crimes. In the Holocaust, the voices of survivors of the death camps became a fundamental part of the world’s understanding of the Nazi policy of extermination. In Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda as well, the accounts of those who survived massacres, mass graves, and campaigns of destruction became an important source for courts, research, public memory, and the education of future generations. Within this framework, oral history is not merely the narration of memory; it is also human, historical, and judicial evidence of what genocidal authorities attempted to conceal.In the history of the Anfal Genocide, mass graves are among the gravest evidence of the organized crime committed by the Ba’ath regime against the Kurdish people. These graves are not merely places where the bodies of victims were buried; they are powerful evidence of a crime — a crime carried out within the framework of a policy of annihilation, disappearance, separation, forced transfer, the erasure of villages, and the destruction of family and communal bonds within Kurdish society. Yet the soil that the state intended to turn into a place for concealing the crime became, through the testimony of survivors, a source for revealing the truth.

Within this catastrophe, a very small number of victims, in extraordinary circumstances and between death and life, managed to survive the mass graves. These 13 survivors were not merely individuals who escaped death; they became living witnesses to a stage of extreme brutality. With their own eyes, they saw the stages of arrest, gathering, classification, separation, transfer, shooting, and the throwing of victims into the pits. For this reason, their stories are not merely accounts of survival; they are foundational testimonies to the mechanisms through which genocide was carried out.

The importance of these testimonies lies in the fact that they create a bridge between the silent victims, the mass graves, and written history. Mass graves are material evidence, but the testimony of survivors places that evidence within the framework of event, time, place, act, order, consequence, and human impact. In the language of life, they recounted what the earth had silently held within itself. They named those who shared their fate, identified the locations of the graves and the routes of transfer, explained the methods by which the Ba’ath regime’s forces treated the victims, and through these testimonies, part of the hidden truth of the Anfal Genocide was brought to light.

The stories of these 13 survivors took place across different geographies of crime. Some survived from the deserts of Ramadi; others from Samawah, Hazar, Mosul, Duhok, and the village of Koreme. Some were later able to reach safer places; some were transferred abroad; some testified in courts; and some were disappeared again or their fate remains unclear. This shows that survival from a mass grave did not mean the end of suffering. Rather, it marked the beginning of another stage of fear, concealment, separation, the burden of painful memory, and the long-term consequences of genocide.

From the perspective of oral history, these stories must be read as part of the global history of survivor testimony in cases of genocide. Just as the testimonies of survivors of the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda became fundamental sources for understanding the methods of crime, identifying victims, building judicial evidence, and preventing denial, the testimonies of the survivors of the Anfal mass graves carry the same significance for Kurdish history and for the global history of genocide. These testimonies can complement documents, forensic reports, the exhumation of mass graves, judicial decisions, and scholarly research.

This work is an effort to collect, organize, and preserve the stories of the 13 individuals who survived the mass graves of the Anfal Genocide. Its purpose is not merely to record individual lives, but to preserve living testimony about genocide, to restore a voice to those who were silenced, and to establish a connection between memory, evidence, justice, oral history, and the history of a genocided nation.

 

                   Names of the Survivors of the Mass Graves

No.	Name of Survivor	Year of Birth	Previous Place	Current Residence / Status	Mass Grave / Location
1	Faraj Muhammad Aziz	1950	Qadir Karam	United States	Deserts of Ramadi
2	Aziz Wahab Muhammad – Uzair	1963	Qadir Karam	United States	Deserts of Ramadi
3	Wahid Hama Saeed Abdul	1965	Qadir Karam	United States	Deserts of Ramadi
4	Ramadan Ali Sleiman	1966	Qadir Karam	United States	Deserts of Ramadi
5	Muhammad Ali Ahmad – Hama Ali Alyan	1956	Teilako	Disappeared again	Deserts of Hazar
6	Anwar Muhammad Reza – Anwar Tayyar	1954	Chamchamal	Disappeared again	Deserts of Ramadi
7	Teymour Abdullah	1976	Teilako	United States	Deserts of Samawah
8	Ababakr Ali Saeed	1954	Kureme – Duhok	Duhok	Kureme – Duhok
9	Abdulqadir Khalil	1962	Kureme – Duhok	Duhok	Kureme – Duhok
10	Abdulkarim Nayif Hassan	1967	Kureme – Duhok	Duhok – Greyas	Kureme – Duhok
11	Sidqi Abdulqadir Fattah	1973	Chelki – Duhok	Sweden	Kureme – Duhok
12	Hashim Muhammad Rashid	1963	Kureme – Duhok	Duhok	Kureme – Duhok
13	Fattah Abdulqadir Fattah	1970	Chelki – Duhok	Disappeared / Missing	Kureme – Duhok

 

Faraj Muhammad Aziz (Mustafa)

Faraj Muhammad Aziz, known as “Mustafa,” in the Middle East Watch book and also known as Haji Faraj of Topkhana, was born in 1950 in the village of Topkhana, التابعة لناحية قادر كرم. In 1988, at the age of 38, he became a victim of the Anfal Genocide campaign. He was taken to the edge of a mass grave and subjected to a hail of bullets, yet he survived inside the mass grave and later became a living witness to the crime he had seen with his own eyes.

In an interview with Arif Qurbani, Faraj recounts that after they were loaded onto coaster buses, they were taken to the Chamchamal brigade headquarters. The place was overcrowded — full of women and children. There were many tractors there, and women’s trousers had been tied to the sides of the Arabana carts attached to the tractors. Faraj says that when he saw that scene, it felt as though a bullet had struck his heart. At that moment, all hope disappeared. He thought they would never again see the light of day. Seeing so many women and children gathered inside the Chamchamal brigade made him think of his own wife and children, and he became terrified that they too had been captured.

During the Anfal campaign, after Faraj and the others had been registered and their personal information recorded, soldiers and executioners of the Ba’ath regime told them that all of them would be shot. Afterwards, they were transferred to the Topzawa military camp. Faraj says that Topzawa resembled the Day of Judgment; people had been brought there from the villages in enormous numbers — from infants in cradles to the elderly and disabled. Once again, registration took place, and men, women, youth, and elderly people were separated from one another. They were lined up in rows of ten before the registration officials, and afterwards, groups of 500 to 600 people were taken into the halls. Every time one group received food, another group would be loaded and taken away, without anyone knowing where they were being sent. After two days in Topzawa, they were placed inside closed green vehicles without windows and transported to the deserts. Faraj recalls that inside those vehicles, the thirst, fear, and suffering were so intense that people reached an unbearable state.

When the vehicles stopped, it looked like the Day of Judgment. From every direction came the sounds of gunfire and screaming, and everywhere one could hear bursts of bullets. The other vehicles traveling with their convoy had each been stopped near pits, where execution squads were carrying out shootings. The prisoners were tied together in pairs and searched. Everything they possessed was confiscated. Their hands and eyes were bound with cloth and headscarves, and at the edges of the pits, facing the ground, they were shot together and thrown into the mass graves.

Faraj asked his cousin Salih to go before two other young men to the edge of the pit because he could not bear to witness the deaths of those two youths. They were taken to the edge of the pit and sprayed with bullets. Faraj says that this was one of the most horrifying scenes he could ever imagine — seeing those two young men endure such terror and anguish before death.

Faraj recounts that after the order to kill was given, the last thing he uttered was the testimony of faith to God Almighty. With the sound of the gunfire, he felt himself and his cousin Salih falling into the pit. At first, he believed that he too had been killed, but later he realized that he was still breathing. No bullet had directly struck him; the blood and flesh covering his clothes belonged to his cousin Salih. At that moment, Faraj realized that Salih was dead.

Inside the pit, Faraj remained trapped among the corpses. His hands and eyes were bound, and his body was covered with blood and dirt, yet he knew that if he moved, he might be shot again. After some time, when he regained partial consciousness, he realized he had fallen on top of other bodies. He could hear gunfire, screams, and groans. Some of the wounded were still alive and crying out in pain.

Faraj says the world around him had become silent and dark. Slowly and with great difficulty, he loosened his bindings and removed the blindfold from his eyes. Yet even after removing it, he did not dare open his eyes for some time. When he finally did, he saw bodies everywhere. Among the corpses were the bodies of the same two young men whose deaths he had not wanted to witness.

Suddenly, two soldiers entered the pit and began searching among the bodies. If they noticed the slightest movement from anyone, they shot them immediately. Faraj held his breath, remained completely motionless, and silently prayed not to be seen. The soldiers walked across the bodies and eventually left. Later, when darkness had fully fallen and visibility had diminished, Faraj attempted to crawl out from among the corpses.

Covered in blood, barefoot, and consumed by terror, Faraj climbed out of the pit. Around him, he saw many other pits filled with bodies, as well as freshly prepared pits waiting for more victims. Without looking back, he fled into the darkness. After a long time, he managed to get far away from the killing site, though he had no idea where he was or where he was heading.

He spent the night walking through fear and thirst. His clothes were soaked in blood, he had no shoes, his body was exhausted, and his heart was filled with terror. Several dogs, attracted by the smell of blood, followed him. Fearing they might attack, Faraj imitated a four-legged animal, making sounds and facing toward the dogs until they moved away from him. Throughout the night and into the following day, he kept walking continuously. Whenever he noticed lights or signs of habitation, he changed direction out of fear.

At daybreak, Faraj found a small stream of water. He drank, washed his hands, feet, face, and eyes, cleaned some of the blood from his clothes, and sat under the sun so the blood on his body would dry. At that moment, he saw an elderly man approaching. At first, he became terrified, because he did not know who the man was or why he had appeared in that desolate wilderness. But when the man came closer and spoke with him, Faraj realized that he was a Kurdish shepherd.

Faraj says that the shepherd was an Iranian Kurd living near Ramadi, in the Al-Tash refugee camp. To protect himself, Faraj invented a story and told the shepherd that he had been the driver of a government vehicle that had overturned, that his companions had died, and that he had lost his way. The shepherd sympathized with him, reassured him, and explained how he could reach the camp and from there continue toward Ramadi and Baghdad.

Following the directions given by the shepherd, Faraj reached the camp. There, a woman gave him bread and tea. Later, her husband returned, and Faraj repeated the same story to him, asking for help to reach a place from where he could return to Kurdistan. The man told him that he could not transport him by vehicle because they themselves were living in the camp like prisoners and were only allowed to use their vehicle once a day with official permission. However, he gave Faraj a pair of sandals and showed him a الطريق that would lead him to the main road, where he could wait for a vehicle going to Ramadi.

Faraj waited on the main road. When an eighteen-passenger vehicle approached from a distance, he signaled for it to stop. But when it halted, an overwhelming fear shook him from within. The image of the bus that had earlier transported them to the killing site flashed before his eyes. He reached for the door, then withdrew his hand. At that moment, someone inside the vehicle opened the door for him, and Faraj climbed aboard.

Inside the vehicle, someone called out: “Faraj, come here.” At first, Faraj did not recognize him, but then he realized it was Uzair, a man from the Laylan area who, like Faraj, had been captured and had also survived the mass execution. Uzair asked him, “What are you doing here?” Faraj replied, “The same as you.” That answer alone was enough for Uzair to understand everything. They did not speak further about the matter inside the vehicle because they did not want others to become aware of their situation.

Together, they traveled toward Ramadi. What mattered most to them was getting away from the killing site, reaching an inhabited area, and eventually finding a way back to Kurdistan. The story of Faraj Muhammad Aziz and his companions constitutes an important part of the oral history of the Anfal Genocide and remains a living testimony to the crimes of the mass graves committed during the genocide.

Faraj Muhammad Aziz was one of the thirteen individuals who survived the mass graves of Anfal. Later, in 1998, he was transferred to the United States as a witness. During the trials of officials of the fallen Ba’ath regime, he testified as a witness to the mass graves, giving evidence for history itself.

 

Aziz Wahab Muhammad Salim (Uzair)

Aziz Wahab Muhammad Salim, known as Uzair, was from the village of Tamarjili, belonging to the Laylan subdistrict of Kirkuk Governorate. At the time of the Anfal campaign, he was 25 years old and was living as a deserter from military service.

On 10 April 1988, he was captured in the village of Khidr Rehan, in the Qader Karam area. Later, together with a large number of Anfal victims, he fell into the hands of the Jahsh forces of Qasim Agha and was sent through the stages of arrest, classification, and transfer.

Uzair, together with Wahid, Ramazan, Anwar Tayyar, Salam Qashqayi, and several other Anfal victims, was part of a convoy that was later taken to a mass execution site. On 14 April, they were transported to Topzawa, where they were detained along with thousands of other Anfal detainees. Later, on 16 April, they were loaded onto buses and, after a long and terrifying journey, taken toward the deserts of Ramadi.

During the journey and inside the bus, Uzair and his companions were in a state of fear and uncertainty. No one knew where they were being taken or what their fate would be. When the buses reached the desert area and left the paved road, the fear intensified, because everyone sensed that they were being taken to a dangerous place.

At the mass execution site, Uzair says:

“After we arrived at the place of execution, we became completely certain that all of us were going to be shot. Through the cracks in the vehicle door, we could see that the people from the other vehicles had already been unloaded and executed.”

“Inside our own vehicle, we made a plan. When they came and opened the door of our vehicle and tried to take us out for execution, we would attack the soldiers. Even though hunger and thirst had drained our strength, we planned that two or three of us would attack one of the soldiers, seize his weapon, and defend ourselves.”

Uzair said that among them was a young man named Salam. The first time the soldier opened the vehicle door, Salam kicked the door open violently, but a second soldier standing outside immediately shot Salam dead and closed the door again.

A second time, they opened the door, and one of the soldiers entered the vehicle to pull someone out for execution. At that moment, while the eyes of a young Kurdish man were still blindfolded, the prisoners attacked the soldier and somehow managed to seize his weapon. However, the soldier succeeded in removing the magazine from the rifle and throwing it into the desert.

Immediately afterwards, from outside the vehicle, the soldiers opened heavy fire on the bus from every direction. Even the executioner who had been inside the vehicle with them was killed. Many of Uzair’s companions were killed instantly while still sitting in their seats, while the others threw themselves beneath the seats in terror.

Uzair said:

“They fired so many bullets into the vehicle that it looked like a sieve full of holes. Blood was flowing through the bus because they had killed so many young men.”

According to Uzair, once darkness had fallen and the shooting had stopped, the soldiers were convinced that everyone inside the vehicle had been killed. When Uzair himself became certain that the soldiers had moved away from the vehicle, he climbed out quietly, escaped unnoticed, and ran into the darkness.

At first, he fell into a pit full of corpses. He said:

“I fell on top of a body that still had life in it, and blood was coming out of its mouth and nose.”

After escaping, Uzair was in an extremely terrifying condition. He had injuries on his body, was exhausted, thirsty, and overwhelmed with fear, yet he tried to move away from that area. Along the الطريق, because of the fear of being captured again, he had to move very cautiously and hide himself constantly.

Uzair continued walking until dawn and eventually reached the same camp that Faraj had reached earlier. He knocked on the doors of several houses until one family received him and gave him bread. After he told them his story, they became frightened and did not want to shelter him, but they showed him the way to board a vehicle heading toward Ramadi, so that from there he could reach Baghdad and eventually Kurdistan.

Afterwards, Uzair managed to return and recount his experience. His story, together with the stories of Faraj, Wahid, Ramazan, and Anwar, forms part of the larger history of the survivors of the mass graves of the Anfal Genocide.

 

 

Wahid Hama Saeed Abdul

Wahid Hama Saeed Abdul, born on 1 July 1965, was from the village of Kani Qadir, belonging to the Qader Karam subdistrict. During the Anfal Genocide in 1988, he was captured by the Jahsh forces of Qasim Agha and, together with several people from the area, was sent through the stages of arrest and forced transfer.

Wahid, together with Uzair, Ramazan, and Anwar Tayyar, was part of a convoy that was taken from Qader Karam and Chamchamal toward an unknown destination. On 14 April, they were transferred to Topzawa, where they were detained along with a large number of other Anfal victims. Later, on 16 April, they were loaded onto a closed bus from Topzawa and transported for a long distance without knowing where they were being taken.

During the journey, fear and uncertainty dominated everyone. No one knew whether the convoy was heading toward another prison or toward death. After some time, when the buses left the paved road and entered a rough dirt road full of rises and slopes, everyone became more aware that a great danger lay ahead.

When they reached the site of the mass killing, the soldiers and executioners unloaded the detainees. They then began shooting the Anfal victims. Wahid, too, was among those who were shot at the same mass execution site in Ramadi, near the mass grave where Uzair, Ramazan, and Anwar Tayyar had also been executed. However, fate was on his side, and although wounded, he survived.

After escaping from the mass grave and from beneath the bodies that had fallen on top of him, Wahid walked throughout the night until morning, eventually reaching an inhabited place, though he did not know where he was. He stayed for two days in the house of an Arab man, where his wounds were treated. Later, he managed to make his way back to Tuz Khurmatu and remained in hiding until the general amnesty of September 1988.

In 1992, through Human Rights Watch, he went to the United States. He now lives in France and earns his living through physically demanding work as a hospital transport driver.

Wahid was later able to recount his story. His testimony, together with those of Uzair, Ramazan, Anwar, and Faraj, formed part of the larger picture of the crimes committed in the mass graves in the deserts of Ramadi during the Anfal Genocide.

 

Ramazan Ali Sleman

Ramazan Ali Sleman was born in 1966 and was from Jafan, in the Qarahanjir area. At the time of the Anfal campaign, he was living as a deserter from military service and was hiding in the village of Khidr Rehan. After hiding for two days, he handed himself over to the Jahsh forces of Qasim Agha.

From Qader Karam, they were taken to the Chamchamal brigade headquarters. There, he was brought together with Uzair. On 14 April, they were taken together to Topzawa. Ramazan, together with Uzair, Wahid, and Anwar Tayyar, were all loaded into the same bus at Topzawa. They were part of a convoy of 35 military vehicles, green-and-white closed buses, that were taken from the Topzawa military camp in Kirkuk toward the desert of Ramadi.

They were transported for a long time without knowing what their fate would be. Along that road, fear, thirst, hunger, and uncertainty cast the shadow of death over all of them. According to the testimonies of survivors, before their names were read and before they were loaded onto the buses, they had been told that they would be shot.

The site of the mass killing was in an area belonging to Ramadi Governorate, near the Al-Tash camp, where Iranian Kurdish refugees were living. Ramazan had 600 dinars with him, but only 15 dinars remained in the pocket of his shirt; the rest, together with his military service booklet, was taken from him during the search.

Ramazan says that when they reached the site of the mass killing, the detainees were taken down from the buses two by two and made to stand at the edge of the pits, where their hands and eyes were bound. Then the soldiers began shooting the people. Ramazan too fell into the excavated pit during that massacre, but he was one of those who, by chance, remained alive among all the dead.

After the sound of gunfire decreased and the place became calmer, Ramazan tried to get himself out of the pit from among the bodies. Terrified and exhausted, he moved away from the killing site and walked through the desert without fully knowing where he was going. He walked all night without stopping, until morning, when he reached an inhabited place but did not know where he was. When he asked where he was, an Arab man, as if mocking him, told him: “New Baghdad.” Ramazan then tried to obtain directions for how to reach Baghdad, and later got into a taxi going there. Although he had many relatives in Baghdad, he did not know the address of any of their homes.

It appears that Ramazan also passed through the same Iranian Kurdish refugee camp through which Faraj and Uzair had passed. Somehow, he managed to reach Kirkuk. Later, he made his way to several of his relatives in Sarchami Tawuspi, where he remained hidden until the general amnesty.

Ramazan was later taken to the United States through Human Rights Watch, and he now lives in Virginia, United States.

Later, as one of the survivors of the mass graves of Anfal, Ramazan recounted his story. He spoke of the fear and anxiety that remained inside him even after his survival, because at every moment he feared that he might once again fall into the hands of the regime’s forces.

 

Muhammad Ali Ahmad- Hama Ali Aliyan

Hama Ali, known as Hama Ali Aliyan, was referred to as “Muhammad” in the Middle East Watch report for the protection of his safety at that time. He was born in 1956 and was a resident of the village of Aliyan in Tilko. During the Anfal Genocide campaign of 1988, like many other people of Kurdistan, he was captured by the forces of the Ba’ath regime and transferred together with a large number of other Anfal victims.

At that time, Hama Ali was married to two wives and was the father of seven children. After their capture, they were separated at Topzawa, and he never saw them again. From Aliyan, they had first been transported on their own tractor to Qoratu, the headquarters of the 21st Division. After three days, they were taken by military trucks to Topzawa, where they were separated. Two days later, Hama Ali, together with other Anfal detainees, was passed through the stages of transfer and classification and later taken toward the deserts of Mosul, in the Hazar area. He and his companions were transported by bus to a place where pits of death had already been prepared for them.

When they arrived at the site of the mass killing, the detainees were unloaded from the buses. The soldiers then began shooting the Anfal victims, and the bodies were thrown into the pits. Hama Ali also fell into the pit during that massacre, but fate was on his side and he remained alive.

After the sounds of gunfire and the movements of the executioners decreased, Hama Ali tried to save himself from among the corpses. Exhausted, terrified, and wounded, he managed to climb out of the pit and move away from the place.

After his escape, he walked through the desert without fully knowing where he was going. Fear, hunger, thirst, and anxiety overwhelmed him because at every moment he feared being recaptured by the regime’s forces. Yet despite all those dangers, he succeeded in getting away from the area and preserving his life.

The story of Hama Ali is the story of a survivor of a mass grave — a man who remained inside a pit of death yet lived to recount the story of that catastrophe. Tragically, however, he later lost his life during the internal Kurdish civil war.

 

Anwar Muhammad Raza – Anwar Tayyar

Anwar Muhammad Raza, known as Anwar Tayyar, was born in 1954 in the village of Cham Surkhaw, belonging to the Qader Karam subdistrict. Because he was a fast and skilled driver, he became widely known among the people by the nickname “Anwar Tayyar” (“Anwar the Pilot”).

During the Garmian phase of the Anfal Genocide, around 11–12 April 1988, Anwar surrendered himself to the Jahsh forces of Qasim Agha. He was later handed over to the intelligence authorities in Qader Karam and passed through the stages of arrest, transfer, and classification. On 14 April, he was taken to Topzawa and imprisoned in the same hall as Uzair, Wahid, Ramazan, and Salam Qashqayi.

On 16 April, together with a number of other Anfal detainees, he was loaded onto a closed bus from Topzawa. They traveled for nearly ten hours on paved roads and approximately one more hour on rough dirt roads full of rises and slopes, without knowing where they were being taken.

Inside the bus, Anwar Tayyar played a noticeable role. Because he had previously worked as a driver and knew the roads and routes, the detainees asked him to look outside through a small opening and determine where they were being taken. At first, he thought they were heading toward Mosul, a city that, among the detainees, was known as a place where Kurds were executed. Later, when the road turned southward, Anwar said: “Good news, we are saved.” But that hope was short-lived, because in reality the detainees were being taken to a site of mass execution.

During the mass shooting, Anwar Tayyar, together with several others, attacked the officer in charge and played an important role in that resistance. According to the accounts of the other survivors, had Anwar not been there, perhaps none of them would have survived the massacre. During the shooting, two bullets struck Anwar in his arm and leg, yet somehow he managed to escape from the killing site.

After surviving, he reached an Arab-inhabited area near the Al-Tash camp, where Kurdish refugees from Eastern Kurdistan had settled. He hid for three days inside an abandoned house. To protect himself, he created a false story: that he had been the driver of a cargo truck carrying cement, that he had been involved in an accident on the road, and that because of the accident, he had lost his identification papers.

Later, Anwar encountered three Kurds by chance and told them his story. One of them coldly replied: “Do you know who we are? The three of us are security and intelligence agents.” Anwar answered: “Whatever you are, you are Kurds.” Then, in pain, he added: “There are no Kurds left.”

Anwar eventually reached Ramadi and from there traveled by train to Baghdad. In Baghdad, he stayed for nearly a month in the house of an aunt named Safiya Ahmad Mahmud and her husband, Jamal Muhyi al-Din Ali. There, his wounds were treated, and later, filled with fear and anxiety, he returned to Chamchamal.

But that return did not end Anwar’s suffering. Because of the terror and catastrophe he had witnessed, he could not remain in Chamchamal. He constantly repeated: “There are no Kurds left; even those who remain will not remain for long.” Later, he once again made his way to the villages of Garmian and hid himself in the Chami Awaspi area. His son, Choman, under the pretext of gathering firewood and brush, would visit him from time to time, bringing bread and medicine and helping to treat his wounds.

Anwar Tayyar was a courageous man, and with the help of his son, he managed to survive for some time. Tragically, however, the story of his survival disappears again into darkness. He was later disappeared once more, and to this day his fate remains unknown.

 

 

Taymur Abdullah

Taymur Abdullah was born in 1976 and was from the village of Kulajo of Haji Hama Jani, belonging to the Tilako subdistrict. At the time of the Anfal Genocide campaign, he was only 12 years old.

Taymur was the only child witness among the survivors of the mass graves who saw, with his own eyes, the form of the mass killing of people and children. He came from a large family; he had a mother, a father, and a number of sisters and brothers. During the Anfal assault, they too, like thousands of other Kurdish families, were captured by the forces of the Ba’ath regime and transferred with the convoy of Anfal victims.

Taymur, together with his family and other people, was first taken to Qoratu, then to the Topzawa military camp, and finally transported by vehicle to the deserts of Samawah. At that time, he was a small child and did not understand where they were being taken. He saw only fear, cries, and the anxiety of the people.

At the site of the mass killing, women and children were separated from the men. Because Taymur was a child, he remained with the women and children, together with his mother and three sisters. But what he saw remained in his memory for the rest of his life. He says that nothing from that day has ever left his mind, especially the fear of the children and their mothers.

After they were shot, Taymur, who had been struck by a bullet in his left shoulder, stretched out his hand toward a soldier, but another bullet was fired into his right side. Wounded, Taymur managed to survive the mass grave. According to his own account, after the soldiers left, he crawled into another pit and passed through several empty excavated pits. Taymur told Middle East Watch that, while wounded and in that dark night, he crossed nearly twenty piles of earth.

Taymur was seen by an Arab nomadic family, who found him wounded and dressed in Kurdish clothing. They were astonished by his condition and sheltered him for three days. Later, out of fear of others, they took him to the city of Samawah. For two years, he was cared for by the family of Al-Ishm al-Saffah. In an interview with Homer Muhammad, editor-in-chief of Anfalistan magazine, Asaad said that in 1990, this Arab family, through their son Fazil, who was serving as a soldier in Kurdistan, spoke about Taymur to Asaad, a man from Sharazur whom they trusted. Through Asaad, Taymur’s relatives — including an uncle who was himself an Anfal survivor — were eventually found.

Taymur’s survival did not mean the end of his suffering, because all the scenes and memories he had witnessed as a child remained deep within him. After the 1991 uprising, Taymur’s story became known, and through his story people learned what had happened to the Kurds and how brutal and horrifying the crime of the Anfal Genocide had been.

Taymur Abdullah later became one of the important witnesses to the mass graves. During the trial of officials of the Ba’ath regime, he presented his own story and what he had seen with his own eyes as testimony.

 

 

Abubakr Ali Saeed

Abubakr Ali Saeed was born in 1954 and was from the village of Koreme, in the Mangesh area of Duhok Governorate. In 1988, he was a resident of Koreme.

During the attacks of the Anfal Genocide campaign in Badinan, the people of Koreme, like many other villages in Badinan, fell into the hands of the Ba’ath regime forces. On 28 August 1988, Abubakr Ali Saeed was captured together with the people of his village.

That same day, after the women and men were separated, the men of the village were taken aside near the village. The number of those taken to the mass killing site reached 33 people. Abubakr was one of the men in that group.

By order of two officers and at the hands of soldiers of the Iraqi army, those men were shot at the mass grave. Abubakr was wounded in that massacre, but he survived and managed to escape.

After his escape, he moved away from the site of the mass killing in great fear and exhaustion. After some time, he was secretly helped and his life was protected.

Abubakr took part in the Iraqi High Criminal Court and gave testimony about the crime. In 2012, he participated in the film 1001 Apples.

Sadly, on 20 September 2020, he passed away due to illness.

 

Abdul Qahar Khalil

Abdulqahar Khalil was born in 1962 and was from the village of Koreme, in the Mangesh area of Duhok Governorate. In 1988, he was a resident of Koreme and had been a Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

During the attacks of the Anfal Genocide campaign in Badinan, particularly on 28 August 1988, Abdulqahar was captured by the Iraqi army together with the people of the village. That same day, after the women and men of the village were separated, Abdulqahar and his father, Mam Khalil, together with many other men — whose number reached 33 — were separated from the village.

They were taken to a place near the village and, by order of two officers, were shot by soldiers of the Iraqi army. In that massacre, Abdulqahar survived wounded and managed to escape, but Mam Khalil, Abdulqahar’s father, was martyred.

After his escape, Abdulqahar lived for some time in fear and anxiety. In 1992, under the supervision of Stephen Trampel, a forensic medical team scientifically exhumed the bodies of the victims from that mass grave, and the report was used as evidence before the Iraqi High Criminal Court.

Abdulqahar had a family and lived in his own town. In 2006, as a witness to the mass grave of Koreme village, he testified before the Iraqi High Criminal Court against Saddam Hussein and his associates.

Sadly, on 28 August 2024, on the anniversary of his survival from the mass grave, he passed away.

 

 

Abdulkarim Nayif Hassan

Abdulkarim Nayif Hassan was born in 1967 and was from the village of Koreme, in the Mangesh area of Duhok Governorate. He had completed intermediate school education.

In 1988, he was living in the village of Koreme. He had been a Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Democratic Party until the Anfal attacks in Badinan began.

On 28 August 1988, during the Anfal assault on Koreme village, Abdulkarim was captured together with the people of the village by the forces of the Ba’ath regime. On the same day, after the women and men were separated, Abdulkarim and the other men of the village, numbering 33 people, were separated in a place near the village.

By order of two officers and at the hands of Iraqi army soldiers, those men were shot. During that massacre, Abdulkarim survived despite being wounded and managed to escape from the mass grave.

After his escape, Abdulkarim lived for a period in fear and anxiety. Later, he married and started a family, and he is now a resident of the city of Duhok. In 2006, as a witness to the mass grave of Koreme village, he testified before the Iraqi High Criminal Court against Saddam Hussein and his associates.

 

 

Sedqi Abdulqadir Fattah

Sedqi Abdulqadir Fattah was born in 1973 and was from the village of Chelki, belonging to the Mangesh subdistrict of Duhok Governorate. The village of Chelki was neighboring the village of Koreme, and Sidqi had completed intermediate school education.

In 1988, Sidqi was living in the village of Chelki, near Koreme. At that time, he had been a Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and had remained in those ranks until August 1988.

During the Eighth Anfal Campaign in Badinan, on 28 August 1988, Sidqi, together with his brother Fattah and all the people of the village, surrendered themselves to the Iraqi army in the village of Koreme.

On the same day, in the same village, after the women and men had been separated from one another, the men were also separated near the village, approximately 200 meters below Koreme village. The number of men was 33.

Those 33 men were shot by ten Iraqi army soldiers under the orders of two officers named Abbas and Muhammad. During that massacre, Sidqi was struck by only one bullet, which hit his heel. Afterwards, he rose from among the corpses and escaped, where he encountered Abdulkarim, Abdulqahar, and Hashim. Later, they hid themselves in the mountains.

At that time, Abdulqahar helped him by cutting open the wounded area with a knife, without anesthesia. Under those conditions, without medicine or any medical instruments, this was one of the desperate efforts made for survival and escape from that catastrophe.

During the general amnesty, on 9 September, Sidqi surrendered himself and survived through that amnesty.

His brother, Fattah Abdulqadir Fattah, also survived the same massacre, but Fattah was never seen again and was later Anfalized once more. To this day, he remains missing.

 

 

Hashim Muhammad Rashid

Hashim Muhammad Rashid was born in 1963 in the city of Zakho. When he was five years old, his family moved back to the city of Slemani, and he later lived in the Sarkarezi neighborhood of Slemani.

Because his maternal uncle’s family lived in the village of Koreme in the Badinan region, Hashim went to his uncle’s house in Koreme at the beginning of the Iraq–Iran War, as a deserter from military service. Later, he became a Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and remained in that area until the attacks of the Eighth Anfal Campaign in Badinan.

On 28 August 1988, in the village of Koreme, Hashim, together with all the people of the village, surrendered to the Iraqi army. That same day, after the women and men were separated from one another, the men were also separated near the village, at a distance of approximately 200 meters. The number of men was 33.

Those 33 men were shot by ten Iraqi army soldiers under the orders of two officers. Hashim says that although none of the first bullets fired by the soldiers hit him, later, by order of the officer, a soldier came over the bodies and fired what was known as the “mercy shot” to make sure they were dead. At that moment, Hashim was fortunate: his head had fallen between the soldier’s two legs, and when the soldier fired, the bullets hit his hand and leg. In this way, Hashim survived the mass grave despite being wounded.

After his escape, Hashim hid for eight days. Later, during the general amnesty of the same year, he surrendered himself while still wounded. Although he was taken to Nizarke Castle, he was later sent to a camp, and remained detained in the Giznikan camp until March 1991.

Hashim Muhammad Rashid survived the Koreme mass grave while wounded and later remained as one of the witnesses to that massacre. Today, Hashim is the father of three children and lives in the city of Slemani.

 

 

Fattah Abdulqadir Fattah

Fattah Abdulqadir Fattah was from the Chelki area of Duhok. Together with his brother Sidqi Abdulqadir Fattah, he became caught up in the events of arrest, transfer, and mass killing during the Anfal Genocide campaign in Badinan.

During the attack on Koreme village and its surroundings, several men from the area were gathered and taken to the site of the mass killing. Fattah, as one of those men, was part of that group.

In that massacre, Fattah too came under a hail of bullets along with the others, but by chance and the fortune of life, he was able to survive. Yet Fattah’s story, like the stories of many survivors, was filled with fear, concealment, and uncertainty.

According to the available information, Fattah is mentioned as one of those who survived that massacre and was seen only once. Later, however, he was Anfalized once again, and to this day his fate remains unknown.

The story of Fattah Abdulqadir Fattah is part of the story of the mass graves of Koreme village. Through his name, as one of the survivors, the memory of that catastrophe remains within the history of the Anfal Genocide.

 

Conclusion

The stories of these 13 survivors are not merely accounts of individual survival; they are an essential part of the oral history of the Anfal Genocide and a living source for understanding how the crime was carried out. These stories reveal that the mass graves were not only places where victims were buried, but also part of an organized system of arrest, classification, transfer, killing, disappearance, and concealment of evidence. With wounded bodies and memories filled with fear and pain, these survivors became living witnesses to a truth that the Ba’ath regime tried to hide beneath the soil and within silence.

From the perspective of oral history, the testimony of these survivors is not only a record of the past; it is also part of historical, judicial, and human evidence-building. These testimonies can fill gaps that written documents, official reports, or the exhumation of mass graves alone cannot fully complete. Through their own voices, the survivors bring into history the time, place, routes, methods of transfer, separation, shooting, and the attempted disappearance of victims. In this way, their testimonies become a bridge between material evidence, human memory, and justice.

Every name, every story, and every survival from the mass graves is evidence that the crime of genocide, no matter how deeply it is covered by soil, fear, silence, and denial, returns to history through the voices of witnesses and the power of memory. Of these 13 survivors, five are no longer alive today; yet their testimony, names, memories, and stories remain an important part of the oral and evidentiary history of the Anfal Genocide.

For this reason, preserving, organizing, and recording these testimonies is a national, human, and scholarly necessity. They are not only a memorial to the victims; they are also a source for research, justice, education, resistance to denial, and the preservation of the history of a genocided nation. These 13 voices remained alive within the graves of death, and through their survival and testimony, they broke the silence that the regime sought to impose on the victims and on history.