Three mass graves were discovered in the sub district of Dubiz in Kirkuk. Announced the Kurdish daily news paper ASO on Sunday, Feb.21st. These graves are to be excavated by the Ministry of Anfaled and Martyrs of Kurdistan regional government in a near future. 

“The graves are holding remnants of children from both Chamchamal and Garmyan areas”. Sayd Fazil Amin the head of KRG martyrs office in Kirkuk told ASO, these kids were taken into captivity during 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds. 

Anfal genocide was a campaign against the Kurds in 1980s. It was aimed at the elimination of the Kurds in Iraq, by destroying and burning Kurdish villages down. Killing and burying alive the people of these villages. It costed over 200,000 lives of innocent Kurds.

The media channels have not yet been invited to publish the unearthing of these three ‘out of hundreds of’ mass graves. We will soon invite the Arabic as well as other foreign media and officially announce the discovery, added Amin.

 “We were jailed in a prison in Dubiz for a while. The only thing we knew then was that of, our crime was being a Kurd. In Dubiz they separated us into men, women and children” Bafraw, an Anfal survivor told Hawler Tribune, “Amanj, my 7 year old son, before taken away was very sick, I asked if I could go with him. They [soldiers] told me, do not worry we will put an end to his sickness, I know how they did it”

Kurds know all their beloved Anfaled ones are dead somewhere in the deserts of Iraq. All they are awaiting for is the return of their remnants. As said Bafraw “Ever since then I have been waiting for him”

A group of experts from ministry of Anfaled and Martyrs are to excavate these graves soon. The graves hold remnants of 272 children and the oldest one among them is a 16 year old girl. A pregnant woman is also among them, added Amin.