It is worth remembering that on the sidelines of the OPEC meeting in Algiers, an agreement called the Algiers Agreement (March 6, 1975) was concluded between Saddam Hussein, Vice President of the Republic of Iraq, and Mohammad Reza, the Shah of Iran, against the Aylul Revolution However, despite the successive general amnesties of the regime and the threats and pressures of the Shah's regime against the revolutionaries with the aim of returning and abandoning the resistance leadership of the revolution, a large number of revolutionaries refused to return under the authority of that government, which had auctioned off part of the land and water of the Country against its own people, and they had settled in that camp.
As stated in the principles of international humanitarian law, in every military conflict, all parties must target only military positions; civilians, whether as groups or as individuals, must not be targeted. The attack on Zewe Camp is considered a crime. Based on that same international law, President Masoud Barzani in a message on the 35th anniversary of that crime, says: "The Zewe tragedy is one of the black pages of the Iraqi state and will never be forgotten," meaning the responsibility lies with Iraq, because according to international law and the definition of classifying the act as a crime, what was done to Zewe Camp contains the two main elements of classifying a crime, which states: First, the crime must have been committed against people who have no direct role or participation in the war and its details. Second, it must have been committed under the pretext of the war, meaning the war was the cause, ground, or opportunity that created such a crime. In other words, if the crime is to complete the purposes and goals of the war.
In international humanitarian law, killing, genocide, dehumanization, ethnic cleansing, immoral experimentation on humans, punishment without trial, use of weapons of mass destruction, state terrorism, state-sponsored terrorism, kidnapping, forced disappearance, use of child soldiers, unjust imprisonment, enslavement, torture, rape, political repression, racial discrimination, and human rights violations are considered crimes against humanity if they are carried out in a planned and widespread manner..
Therefore, according to these international classifications, the bombing of Zewe Camp, which was dedicated to refugees and inhabited by civilians, is an international crime, because all the residents of the camp were citizens of South Kurdistan who had left their homeland for fear of the then-government of Iraq and had settled in that camp. At the same time, Iraq was at war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and what Iraq did against that camp was to complete the purposes and goals of the war, and this is a crime. In this regard, Khoshawi Ali Kanyelnji, as a citizen residing in that camp, in a statement to the website kdpinfo said: "Between the years 1980 to 1988, throughout those years, the Iran-Iraq war was ongoing. Zewe was targeted and bombed 9 times. This was at a time when, according to the United Nations Charter, we were political refugees in Iran; our lives and dignity should have been protected. But far from all human values and international laws and regulations, the Iraqi regime had blood on its hands from refugee women and children."".
Also, regarding the magnitude of the crime and the psychological and physical effects of that crime on the wounded and the families of the martyrs, he said: "In this aerial bombardment, nearly 150 refugees were martyred and nearly 400 refugees were wounded. Among the martyrs, there were those whose body parts were not even found, and those who are wounded still suffer today due to the severity of their wounds."
President Masoud Barzani who arrived at the camp immediately after the crime, met with the bereaved citizens, and saw the scale of the crime with his own eyes, said in a public meeting regarding the crimes of the then-government of Iraq against the Kurd people: "In 1985, when Zewe was bombed, it was such a crime that it could not be imagined. I arrived there immediately. Believe me, not a day has passed in my life that those scenes do not come before my eyes: headless children, children who had been split in two, women, and things I saw that cannot be described. At that time, I saw a lioness of a woman who put down a bag of pieces of flesh of her four sons, came and hugged me, and said: I do not want to see your tears; I have two sons left, let them also be a sacrifice for Kurdistan."
Fahima Ramazan, who was eight years old at the time of the crime, in addition to being disabled, also lost her mother and a brother in the bombing.. Also, Gulishan Khalid, who is also a survivor of the bombing, Hassan Sofi, who lost a leg due to the bombing, and Aisha Sorakani, whose husband was martyred in that bombing and whose son was disabled, still suffer from their physical and psychological pains, and the event is present in their minds.
At the same time, anyone who had seen the moans of the wounded and the torn and burnt bodies of the Zewe martyrs would have clearly seen the brutality of the then-regime of Iraq and the oppression of the people of Kurdistan. But the resilience and heroism of the Zewe refugees and Mother Amina and hundreds of other examples of the Kurd people is a clear message to everyone that no matter how cruel and well-armed the enemy is, it cannot stop the freedom-seeking will of the Kurd people, when she said: "If the enemy tears us apart, we will never surrender, because in the culture of the struggle of Kurdistan, there is no bowing down."
Although the aerial attack on Zewe Camp by the then-government of Iraq is a crime against humanity according to applicable international laws, and after the process of the liberation of Iraq and the establishment of the High Criminal Court, all documents of the bombing of this crime were handed over to the aforementioned court by the Kurdistan Regional Government, it remains unanswered to this day.
Sources:- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board
- Sarkawt Jalil, Events of Khurmatu under International Criminal Law, Research.
- 33 3- 33 years since the bombing of Zewe camp by... | Rudaw.net (rudaw.net)
- Crimes against humanity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (wikipedia.org)