Kurdistan Region allocates $200m to Garmiyan projects
After meetings with officials from Kalar, the prime minister met with the families of Anfal victims and other people from the region.
During his visit, PM Barzani laid the foundation stone of a 100-bed hospital in Kalar and promised the allocation of $200 million for basic services.
In a speech to residents of the area, the prime minister said that a project to build a highway between Kalar and Derbandikhan would get underway early next year.
The Garmiyan region was the target of Saddam Hussein’s Anfal genocide campaign in the late 1980s. Tens of thousands of Kurdish villagers were taken by the Iraqi army and disappeared in the country’s southern deserts.
“The federal government in Baghdad should shoulder some of the responsibility because all the crimes were perpetrated by the Iraqi government,” PM Barzani said on his visit to Kalar.
The prime minister said that the Iraqi government should compensate victims of the Anfal campaign. He also stressed that no efforts should be spared in recognizing the Anfal as genocide.
The prime minister praised the people of the Garmiyan region for not resorting to revenge after the liberation of Kurdistan in 1991 and during the fall of Hussein’s regime in 2003, despite all the tragedies they had gone through.
Officials from region submitted a list of projects in the fields of education, health, transportation and sports centers that need government funding. The prime minister approved their demands on Sunday.
“I assure you that in the very near future all these projects will get underway,” PM Barzani told the people of Garmiyan. “We were here yesterday, today we are here and we will be here again with new projects.”
As part of his trip to the region, the prime minister visited the University of Garmiyan and promised the faculty the government’s full support.
The prime minister approved funding for the expansion of the university campus, housing for the faculty as well a special budget of 10 billion Iraqi dinars for maintenance.
From Kalar, the prime minister traveled to the town of Rizgari where the majority of residents are survivors of the Anfal campaign. He and his ministers laid the foundation stone for the building of 1,500 houses for Anfal families.
The town of Kifri was the last leg of the prime minister’s visit to the region. The head of the Garmiyan Heritage Center took the prime minister on a tour of Kifri’s old markets, some of which still lay in ruins.
In a speech to Kifri residents, PM Barzani said that their town was hard hit by the Anfal campaign, and for this reason the government must pay special attention to the needs of its people.
“I am honored and happy to have come to Kifri,” PM Barzani said. “I have come here to know what your needs are and to work earnestly to fulfill them. You deserve all services. You have sacrificed and suffered great losses.”
