Protests in Kirkuk over former regime's camp revival

Shafaq News / Kurdish residents in Kirkuk have expressed their dismay at attempts to revive a camp formerly used by the previous regime as a detention and torture facility for victims of the Anfal campaigns in 1988.

The camp is located in the village of "Toubzawa," which is part of the Baiji district west of Kirkuk. It was constructed in 1987 after the displacement of the village's inhabitants. A year later, it became a detention center for Kurds who were victims of the Anfal campaigns. Thousands were held there before being transferred to the Naqrat Salman prison in the desert near Samawah in southern Iraq.

In recent weeks, Iraqi army units have entered the village several times with the intention of rehabilitating the Toubzawa camp, but these efforts were prevented following the intervention of Justice Minister Khalid Shawani.

Loqman Abdul Latif Kaki, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party's Kirkuk branch, told Shafaq News Agency that the primary demand of the locals is the restoration of their land, which was seized by the previous regime and turned into the Toubzawa camp.

Muneer Basil, a resident of the village, emphasizes that "the 11th Division of the Iraqi army wanted to establish a presence in the camp, as it falls under the ownership of the Ministry of Defense. However, the camp's land belongs to the locals, who had it confiscated by the previous regime. More than 1,000 families live nearby, and the army's presence near these families' homes is not acceptable."

Basil rejects the revival of the Toubzawa camp, stating that it brings back painful memories for the citizens since it was once a center of oppression and persecution against innocent Kurdish individuals. He emphasizes that the locals' demand is to transform the camp into a memorial site, as it holds within its walls the stories and messages of the Anfal victims.

It's worth noting that 47 organizations, personalities, and activists involved in the Anfal campaigns issued a statement last Saturday, calling for the cancellation of the decision to rehabilitate the Toubzawa camp. They argue that the camp's land originally belonged to the Kurds and was granted to them by the state in the 1980s.