The Faylee Kurds are one of the three major groups that make up the Kurdish people. They are one of the oldest groups in present-day Iraq – their origins can be traced back to the first civilizations in ancient Mesopotamia.
While all Iraqis suffered under Saddam, the Faylee Kurds have been especially persecuted because they are both Kurdish and Shiaa, making them prime targets for ethnic cleansing campaigns, sometimes called “Arabization” These campaigns forcibly displace non-Arab, Shiaa, Christians, and others from their villages and replace them with Sunni Arabs. Often, non-Arabs are required to change their ethnic identity to Arab.
Faylee Kurds also have been subjected to mass killings, executions, torture, and arbitrary imprisonment at the hands of Saddam.
Under Saddam regime, approximately 500,000 Iraqi faylee kurds were rounded up in 1980s, deprived of their identity cards, the deeds to their homes, and even high school diplomas and deported to Iran in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war. They were ordered at gunpoint to cross the mine-filled border on foot. Many died along the way, blown up by the landmines, killed by the crossfire of warring troops, or from physical exhaustion.
Adding to their tragedy, Saddam ordered male relatives between the ages of 13 and 28 of the deported Faylee Kurds to be held as hostages. An estimated 18,000 young men were imprisoned and their fate remains unknown to this day. Their mothers and fathers, wives, siblings and children have lived for over, twenty five years without any news. Now we understand that all the rumors which we heard, that the men were tortured, killed, or were subject to experiments using chemical and biological weapons was true. Mostly, we know nothing of their fate.
