by Vahal A. Abdulrahman The word “Anfal”, meaning “The Spoils of War” was supposed to remain a 7th century Arabic term, immortalized by the eight Surah of the Quran. In the late 1980s, however, Saddam Hussein resurrected the term to label his genocidal campaign against rural Kurdistan. I recently spoke to an Anfal survivor and expert from Quebec, Canada by way of Garmian, Iraqi Kurdistan; Mr. Khalid Sulaiman, in a rather depressing way, defined the Anfal for me as, “that moment during which I lost the taste of life.” For 182,000 Iraqi Kurds, including scores of immediate relatives of Khalid, the Anfal simply meant the end of life through a meticulous and systemic operation commencing with being trucked in military transportation vehicles and ending in the mass graves of the deserts of Iraq.” Mr. Khalid Sulaiman, Iraq Memory Foundation Born The district of Garmian is often referred to by Khalid as “Anfalistan”; it was here where the young Khalid Sulaiman watched his fellow co...