Taymour Anfal recounts his escape, reunion, and fight for justice against Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Taymour Anfal is the sole survivor of a mass grave where Kurdish women and children were buried during the Anfal campaign, a genocide against the Kurdish people. Whenever Anfal is discussed in Kurdistan, Taymour Anfal is brought up as an example.
Taymour Anfal, the only survivor from Garmian area and one of the mass graves in located in the Samawah region of southern Iraq, was born in 1976 in the village of Hawara Barz, in Garmian. Later, he and his family moved to the village of Kolajo Haji Hamajan. He grew up in a poor farming family. Taymour Anfal told Kurdish Globe: “Our family was just trying to survive, but due to the war between the Peshmerga and the Iraqi army, our region fell victim to the Anfal campaign. We were caught in this process and were taken to the Iraqi army’s detention centers. After spending some time in prison, we were transported in military trucks to southern Iraq. There, Kurdish families were executed and buried in mass graves. I personally witnessed 115 Kurdish families being executed in a single night. I saw my own sister, brother, and relatives being shot. I was also wounded, but somehow, I survived. I walked through the desert alone, eventually reaching a Bedouin Arab family’s tent in the Tall Sheikh area of Samawah. They sheltered me for two days before sending me to Samawah province. I lived with that Arab family in fear for three years, constantly hiding from the Ba’ath Party and Iraqi intelligence. Eventually, they helped me return to Kurdistan.”
Taymour continued recounting his story, explaining how he started his journey back to Kurdistan: “My journey back to Kurdistan began when I spoke with a young soldier from the Arab family, I stayed with who was stationed near Erbil. I told him that some of my relatives might still be alive in the Serqala area, and I gave him some addresses, asking if he could help find them. I wanted to return to Kurdistan. The soldier, whose name was Salih, later found a Kurdish family he trusted. He shared my story with them, telling them about a boy who had survived the mass executions of his family. Since my uncle’s house was in Kalar district and my aunt’s house was near Serqala, the family used these details to search for them. Through their own efforts, the Kurdish family managed to locate my aunt’s house first, and eventually, they also found my uncle’s house. They gathered all the necessary information and finally relayed it back to the Arab soldier who had helped me.”
Taymour further described his emotional reunion: “The young Arab, Salih, reassured me, saying, ‘Don’t worry, I have found your family, and they will arrive soon.’ After some time, my uncles, accompanied by the Kurdish family who had helped locate them, decided to come to Samawah. Before my uncle arrived, the Arab family wanted to make sure everything was handled smoothly. They gathered all the children from the neighborhood and told them, ‘If any of these men turn out to be his uncles, he will recognize them among thousands of others.’ When my uncles arrived in Samawah and I saw them, I was overwhelmed and ran to them immediately. I hugged them tightly, and we all cried together. Then, we sat down and discussed at length how I would return. The Arab family was reluctant to let me go; they didn’t want me to leave them and be taken away by my uncles. After long discussions, we reached a compromise: I would spend one month in Kurdistan and one month in Samawah. They insisted, ‘Taymour is one of us; we raised him as our own.’ Eventually, I returned and went to my uncle’s house in the Rzgari district.”
Taymour also spoke about the challenges he faced after his story became public: “When the Ba’ath Party learned about my survival and my story, they tried to silence me. Saddam Hussein even placed a bounty on my head to prevent the truth from being revealed. This is why my story remained hidden until the Kurdish uprising (Raparin) in the 1990s.”
Taymour’s journey to America
After Taymour was found and the Kurdish uprising took place, the issue of the Anfal campaign became clear through his testimony. He revealed how people and families were taken away to be executed and buried alive. Taymour explained: “I was rescued through the intervention of Joost Filterman, the head of the Middle East Organization, who formally requested from the White House that my life be protected and that I not be killed. As a result, the White House decided to transfer me to the United States. Since then, I have been living in the U.S., working extensively on the Anfal and genocide cases. We collaborated with both American media and the FBI to expose the truth about Saddam’s regime to the public. I have also testified about these crimes in the U.S. Congress.
At the White House, I met with Colin Powell, the former U.S. Secretary of State, and discussed the Anfal campaign with him. Powell even mentioned me in one of his speeches.”
The Kurdish Globe