GENOCIDE

Elective - 4 credits / Trigger warning.

2025

JGLS
Juan Vallejo
• World’s largest ethnic group without a state
• Do not identify as Arab - European & Mesopotamian descent
KURDS / Iraq (1988)
• Language dialects
• Sunni Muslims and other faiths
• Exist before Islam - 6th C.E.
• More than 1 century looking for independence
• Different sub-factions - Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan (others)
• Protected or unprotected “minority” status
• 30 / 40 million today
• Crucial in Middle Eastern policy – military capacity (1988 allied with Iran; Syria 2011 against
ISIS)
• Captured Saddam Hussein (2003) and the Osama Bin Laden messenger (2004)
• End of WWI - No provision for Kurdistan – Treaty of Sèvres
• “Kurdistan” – Autonomous region (North – Iraq after Gulf War 1991, recognised in 2005.
2017 referendum) OR “Greater Kurdistan” (hypothetical).
 Iran-Iraq war (80 - 88)
• Protracted and indecisive conflict.

• Iraq’s invasion of Iran.

• 1979 Iranian Revolution.

• Border disputes, oil reserves, hegemony

• Iraq was successful early (1980–82)

• First use of chemical warfare since World War

• Ceasefire in 1988.

• Peace agreement – Aug. 1990.

• U.S. backed Iraq (Iranian revolution)

 Saddam Hussein
• 1937 - Dec.30.2006, Iraq

• President of Iraq (1979 - 2003) - Brutal dictatorship

• 1959 - Failed attempt to assassinate Iraqi Pres.

• 1972 - Nationalized the oil industry.

• 90 – 91, Kuwait war (lost Persian Gulf War)

• Use of WMD

• 2003 - U.S. invasion in (Iraq War) - captured.

• 2006 - Iraqi High Tribunal sentenced him to death for CAH.

• “Chemical Ali” / 1941 - 2010, Iraq
ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Majīd

• Iraqi Baʿth Party official and a cousin of Iraqi Pres.

Ṣaddām Ḥussein. During his career he became
known for brutal attacks on Iraqi citizens,
especially Kurds and Shīʿites.

• In 1987, during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), he

was appointed the governor of the largely
Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Between
February and September 1988, he perpetrated the
Anfāl (Arabic: “Spoils”) chemical attacks on Iraqi
Kurds as a reprisal for Kurdish resistance, and in
March, he conducted separate chemical attacks in
and around the village of Ḥalabjah in which some
5,000 people were killed.
• 1987 – 1988 (Feb-Sep) Halabja Genocide /
“Anfal Campaign”
• 100,000 Kurds aprox.

• 4/18 millions in Iraq at the time

• Saddam Hussein - “Eliminate Kurdish insurgency”

(Mens rea?)

• All Hassan al-Majid (“Chemical Ali” - genocide

conviction – Death Penalty 2003)

• “Implicated victims” - Some Kurds aligned with Iran

• “Prohibited zones”

• Cleansing, gassing, killing, deportation

 Gases
• Mustard gas

• Sarin gas

• Tabun gas

• VX gas

• Aflatoxin
 “I became really afraid-convinced that nobody survived. I climbed up from the shelter
to a cave nearby, thinking they might have taken refuge there. There was nobody there,
either. But when I went to the small stream near our house, I found my mother. She had fallen
by the river; her mouth was biting into the mud bank.... I turned my mother over; she was
dead. I wanted to kiss her but I knew that if I did, the chemicals would be passed on. Even
now I deeply regret not kissing my beloved mother.
I continued along the river. I found the body of my nine/year-old daughter hugging her
cousin, who had also choked to death in the water.... Then I went around our house. In the
space of 200-300 square meters I saw the bodies of dozens of people from my family. Among
them were my children, my brothers, my father, and my nieces and nephews. Some of them
were still alive, but I couldn't tell one from the other. I was trying to see if the children were
dead. At that point I lost my feelings. I didn't know who to cry for anymore and I didn't know
who to go to first. I was all alone at night."

Al-Askari's family contained forty (40) people before the attack and fifteen (15) after. He lost
five children - two boys (16 and 6 years old); and three girls (9, 4 and 6 months old). In
Guptapa some 150 Kurds were killed in all. Survivors had witnessed the deaths of their
friends, their spouses, and their children. / Power S.
We could stop the killing by:

(a) demanding a Security Council investigation and linkage of human rights to the
Geneva peacemaking,

(b) bringing Kurdish refugees to the U.S. for testimony,

(c) encouraging wider Turkish aid and

(d) leaning on Iraq by threatening an early pullout of Persian Gulf ships. If this gets no
results quickly, we can slip Stinger missiles to Massoud Barzani in the hills to bring
down the gassing gunships. –Safire W, NYT Sep 1988-
 HRW report 1992
“The executions and disappearances of Koreme men and
boys, the forcible relocation of surviving villagers, the
conditions in detention centers and the relocation camps
resulting in the death and severe suffering of surviving
villagers, and the destruction of Koreme's physical premises,
and the chemical attacks on and destruction of the village of
Birjinni, if shown to be undertaken with "intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious
group," constitute genocidal acts by the government of Iraq
and by the individuals who ordered or carried them out”
• UNSC condemns the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

• Arts. 39 and 40 of the

UN Charter.
 Arts. 39 & 40 UN Charter
• Article 39. The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the
peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or
decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to
maintain or restore international peace and security.

• Article 40. In order to prevent an aggravation of the situation, the Security Council may,
before making the recommendations or deciding upon the measures provided for in
Article 39, call upon the parties concerned to comply with such provisional
measures as it deems necessary or desirable. Such provisional measures shall be
without prejudice to the rights, claims, or position of the parties concerned. The Security
Council shall duly take account of failure to comply with such provisional measures.
 UNSC – Res. 661 / 90

• “Embargo”

• Chap VII - UN Charter

• Art. 51 UN Charter

• “All states shall…”

• Chapter VII – UN Charter “Action with Respect to Threats to the
Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression.”

• Article 51. Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent
right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs
against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has
taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and
security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of
self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and
shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the
Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such
action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore
international peace and security.
 UNSC Res. 677 / 90
• Registration of
the Kuwait
population up
to Aug.1.90

• Chap VII UN
Charter.
 UNSC Res. 678 / 90
• “Ultimatum”

• Resolution authorizing the use of force against

Iraq if it failed to withdraw by January 15, 1991
from Kuwait.

• Hussein refused to withdraw his forces from

Kuwait, which he had established as a province
of Iraq

• Some 700,000 allied troops, primarily

American, gathered in the Middle East (Saudi
Arabia) to enforce the deadline.
• Feb. 24 – Coalition ground offensive UNSC Res. 687 / 91
• Feb. 28 – Kuwait liberated
• Establishment of U.S. Air base inside Iraq
• Feb. 28 – Ceasefire declared by US
• Conditions for a formal end to the conflict.
• April 6, Iraq accepted the resolution
• April 11 the UNSC declared it in effect.

• According to the resolution, Bush’s cease-fire would become official, some sanctions
would be lifted, but the ban on Iraqi oil sales would continue until Iraq destroyed its weapons
of mass destruction under U.N. supervision. During the next decade, Saddam Hussein
frequently violated the terms of the peace agreement, prompting further allied air strikes and
continuing U.N. sanctions
Resolution 688 / 91 - Kurds
 UNSC – Res. 1441 / 02 (Pos 9/11)
• At the insistence of the United States

• Demanding that Iraq readmit inspectors and

comply with all previous resolutions.

• Iraq agreed to readmit inspectors

• On March 17, 2003, the United States and its

allies declared an end to negotiations

• March 20 they launched the first in a series of

precision air attacks on targets in Iraq,

• Invasion of American and British ground forces

 Genocide Conviction

• Ali Hassan al-Majid

• January 2007

• Genocide, WC, and CAH

• For ordering army and security

services to use chemical
weapons in an offensive said to
have killed some 180,000
people during the 1980-88 Iran-
Iraq war.
 Workshop – HRW 1992
1. What was the primary objective of the Anfal campaign conducted by the Iraqi government in August
1988?

2. Describe the sequence of events that led to the execution of 33 Koreme men and boys on August
28, 1988. What evidence suggests these executions were carried out under official orders?

3. According to the conclusions of law, what specific actions by the Iraqi government during the Anfal
campaign could be classified as genocidal acts?

4. What were the conditions in the Beharke and Jeznikam camps, and how did these conditions
contribute to the deaths of many relocated individuals?

5. How does the report link the use of chemical weapons against Iraqi civilians to violations of
customary international law?

https://www.hrw.org/reports/1992/iraqkor/KOREME9.htm
 CREDITS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxsYpUCD4M0&t=5s / DW , 7 mins (Who are the Kurds).

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZB9HqoHaaU (AJZ Who are… 3 mins)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLTZDfZ4Y_E (47 mins. Halabja Campaign AJZ)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGrSQ56qev0 (TLDR 8 mins. Kurdistan explained)

•
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN6bXD3xf2s (4 mins Invasion Kuwait / BBC)

• https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/iraq-invades-kuwait (Timeline)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_lctDXHuQv (What happened Guulf War / 4 min)

• https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna19394865