Anfal Presentation at Amnesty International Annual Conference

On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Amnesty International held their 2008 Southern Regional conference in Memphis, TN. In this three day event, various topics regarding civil, political, social, cultural, and economical rights were discussed. Various debates and workshops were held regarding issue topics concerning Human Rights in the world.

Amnesty International, which is a self-governed organization was established in 1961 and has since worked in as many as 150 countries. Based on Amnesty International statistics, they have over 2.2 million supporters around the world and they work to protect justice, freedom and dignity for every person regardless of their race, religion, gender, and ethnicity. Each year, Amnesty International publishes a report regarding its work and concerns around the world.

This years regional conference in Memphis invited various guests speakers about a variety of issues around the world including death penalty; Katrina Recovery; women in Zimbabwe; bringing war criminal to justice, Darfur case; and the Anfal against the Kurdish nation.

Regarding the Anfal genocide, Mr. Ara Alan and Mr. Yunis Haji, both spoke about the Campaign in Southern Kurdistan during the 1980s. There was an audience of over 200 Amnesty Advocates from across Southeast USA present during the Anfal presentation. Ara Alan gave a thorough presentation of what the Anfal Campaign was? How it was planned? Who the central actors were? Why it was carried out? Who it was carried out against? How it has affected Kurdistan as a region? And how it affects Kurds now till this day? As a witness of the Anfal Campaign, Mr. Yunis Haji, one of the only 7 survivors of the Anfal campaign living in United States gave a compelling eye witness story to the crowd. Mr. Haji brought the audience into tears as he recalled his experience as one of the survivors of the genocide campaign against his nation.

As the program closed, Laura Moye, the deputy director gave the conference closing remark. She thanked the guests for speaking about Anfal and specifically Mr. Haji's personal story that gave a human touch to the Anfal presentation. She encouraged all the local chapters to take advantage of Mr. Haji and Mr. Alan's willingness to go to the local chapters and present the Anfal campaign in depth. It s expected that similar but more comprehensive presentation about the Anfal campaign will take place all across the United States in the coming year.