The recently recovered bodies of more than 100 children who were killed during Saddam Hussein's reign were buried Tuesday in the Kurdish town of Chamchamal.The children had been detained in an internment camp in 1988 during a wave of arrests and attacks on the Kurds known as the "Anfal" campaign. Approximately 180,000 people died or disappeared during the campaign, in which villages were razed and civilians were executed or displaced.
As a brass band played solemnly, Peshmerga fighters buried the coffins draped with Kurdish flags in a cemetery created specifically for the ceremony. Two women were also buried.
"This is a tragic reminder of the brutality the Kurds suffered under Saddam Hussein's reign," Qubad Talabani, Kurdistan Regional Government representative to the United States said. "The children are finally getting the respect they deserve."
Over 4,000 people attended the ceremony including Barham Salih, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government and Nechirvan Barzani who was in attendance Representing President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani. Other Kurdish officials, foreign diplomats and family members of victims were also there.
None of the children buried in Chamchamal were identified before burial due to a lack of DNA testing equipment but will be when facilities become available, Kurdish Health Minister Taher Hawrami said.
This press release has been distributed by Qorvis Communications, LLC on behalf of the Kurdistan Regional Government. More information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
Source: Kurdistan Regional Government
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See also Sydney Irresistible and for personal comment, Mike Hitchen Unleashed
Putting principles before profits
