18TH SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES TO THE ROME STATUTE
Day 3 (4 December 2019)
Name of the Event: Genocide Victims in Iraq and the Middle East Testify (Side Event hosted by the Kurdish National Coalition for ICC)
Overview by: Rachel Grand, Junior Research Associate PILPG-NL
Main Highlights:
Abdullah Nawrolly urged for accountability for companies that sold chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein.
Participants called for the international community to acknowledge the international crimes the Kurds have suffered from as well as reparations for Kurdish victims.
Summary of the Event:
The session opened with a film about the Kurdish genocide. The film highlighted the centuries of violence the Kurds have endured. From the Halabja chemical attacks to the Anfal genocide to ISIS’s mass displacement of Kurdish Yezidis, to Iran’s hangings, to the abduction of Barzani tribesman, to the killing of Kurdish kolbars, to their persecution in North Kurdistan and Turkey, to the current violence the Kurds are facing in North-Eastern Syria. The video also showed images of victims’ bodies covered in burns from chemical weapons.
The former governor of Halabja City, Abdullah Nawrolly, spoke about his relatives, who were some of the 5,000 people killed in the chemical bombings in Halabja. He said there are remainings of chemical attacks, injured people who need more medical attention, displaced people, and children missing. Nawrolly called for the companies who sold the chemical weapons to reimburse the victims, the Iraqi government to stop using chemical weapons, assistance for finding missing children, the establishment of a psychological care center, the creation of a genocide research center, and international support in reconstructing the city.
I. Muhammed Ayad, a lawyer, and representative of the Iraq people of Kurdistan, spoke next. He discussed the history of genocide in Iraq and the problems the country faces in holding individuals accountable in the Iraqi courts. Ayad explained how the Rome statute principles are the basis for the Iraqi laws on the court. He argued that there has not been the proper implementation of such laws. Therefore, victims have struggled to receive compensation from the courts. He went on to explain how the companies who supplied Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons must be held accountable and provide victims with compensation.
Another lawyer for the Northern Kurd area in Syria spoke next on how the Kurds still consider themselves victims even after defeating ISIS. He covered the need to protect all ethnic and religious groups inside Syria through a resolution with neighboring states and the United Nations. Additionally, he noted that the ICC must recognize the crimes against humanity, genocide, and war crimes committed in Syria. He concluded by calling on powerful countries to promote international security on the ground rather than escaping their responsibilities to hold all individuals who commit atrocity crimes accountable.
Hymn Haseeb Qader Aljabbari, from Kirkuk, discussed the previous suppression of Kurds in Kirkuk and the re-occurrence of similar policies today. Kirkuk is a disputed area according to Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution. Historically the area has been shared by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government. However, beginning in 1960, the Iraqi government brought Arabs from other parts of the country to Kirkuk to cause a demographic shift. Furthermore, they prohibited the Kurdish language and took lands from Kurds. Throughout this time, there was a massive decrease in the Kurdish population and an increase in the Arab population. Article 140 of the Constitution was supposed to return the land to the Kurds. Still, in 2003, the Iraqi government brought troops back into the area and began re-enacting similar policies from the 1960s using military force. Hymn Haseeb Qader Aljabbari warned that Kirkuk is a ticking time bomb.
The final speaker, Azad M. Ameen Abdalrahman, told the story of how Iraqi forces killed 480 of the 500 inhabitants from his village in May 1998, in what he calls “the second Halabja.” Ameen Abdalrahman called for the international community to recognize this mass killing as an act of genocide and visit his village to see the atrocities victims went through.
The event concluded with a brief discussion on the media, NGOs, and security agency investigators' poor treatment of Yezidi victims of sexual violence.