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Paper short abstract:

The paper engages with the historic al-Anfāl trials in Baghdad, asking whether legal justice for genocide can be punishment in the form of the death penalty or life imprisonment. It brings the trials in dialogue with survivors of one of al-Anfāl massacres in the village of Korêmê in Kurdistan-Iraq.

Paper long abstract:

Korêmê is a lonely village that is located in a small valley within an open but hilly area on the frontal range of the Zagros Mountains and not far from the Iraqi-Turkish border. After the arrest and separation of men from women and children and the destruction of the village of Korêmê, a massacre takes place on 28 August 1988. This is part of what the Iraqi Baʿth state called “chain of command of al-Anfāl operation” (1987-1991). Human remains from the mass grave in the village, hiding and conserving the historic massacre, return in form of forensic and visual evidence. These are then attached to the survivor and expert witnesses in the al-Anfāl trials, who testify against the identified perpetrators in Bagdad from 2006 to 2007. This paper details how the jurisdiction of the Baghdad Tribunal was restricted to the Iraqi Baʿth Party’s crimes that had been committed in Iraq between 1968 and 2003. It then turns to the al-Anfāl trials and the application of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, the 1950 Nürnberg Principles and the 1967 Iraqi Penal Code, concluding with a verdict recognising al-Anfāl as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The paper is asking whether legal justice for genocide can be punishment in the form of the death penalty or life imprisonment. The al-Anfāl trials are then brought forth as a dialogue with the memories and critical reflections of women and men survivors more than two decades after the massacre and the destruction of Korêmê.