Kurdish minority prepares genocide case

BAGHDAD, June 21 (UPI) -- The Iraqi High Tribunal is prepared to hear a case concerning atrocities committed against Fayli Kurds under Saddam Hussein, officials said.

Fayli Kurds settled the border regions between modern-day Iran and Iraq during the Mesopotamian era in what are today the Ilam and Kirmanshah provinces of Iran and the Diyala province in Iraq.

Thousands of Faylis settled in Baghdad, and their numbers reached about 1 million before Saddam Hussein launched ethnic cleansing campaigns against the ethnic minority in the 1970s and 1980s.

European officials and representatives from the Kurdistan Regional Government brought several Faylis to Iraq to serve as witnesses as their cases are prepared for delivery before the Iraqi High Tribunal, the Kurdish Globe reported.

Many of the witnesses said they were the victims of the chemical thallium, a nerve agent, forced displacements and disappearances.

Approximately 10,000 Faylis were detained under Saddam and hundreds of families were deported to Iran.

"The Faylis were living in Iraq for hundreds of years," said Mihabad Qaradaghi, a Kurdish official. "In the 1970s, the Kurdish (political) movement was active inside Baghdad due to the large Fayli population there. Authorities at that time planned to cleanse them to remove their influence and to benefit financially by confiscating their property."

Qaradaghi said several of the Fayli witnesses face obstacles to regain their Iraqi citizenship. The Kurdistan Regional Government offered to provide Faylis with identity cards, but the issue largely rests with Baghdad, she said.

The Iraqi High Tribunal is to consider whether the crimes committed against the Faylis amount to genocide.