The crisis of the Faili Kurds and the violation of their rights:

The Kurdish crisis in Iraq is (sectarian and nationalistic). Being Kurdish and belonging to Shiite caused the suppression of the Failis. This suppression is clearly embodied by the certificate of the Iraqi nationality and the degree of citizenship.

The certificate of the Iraqi nationality (shahadat al- jensiya):

This problem goes back to the endings of the Ottoman reign in Iraq as the Iraqi people were forced to join the Ottoman army and suffer from hard labor and were even sent to Northern Africa, Georgia (Qaf’kaz), or nearby Europe. That’s why the main Faili Kurds preferred to get the Iranian nationality and avoid joining the Ottoman army as it was well known for its difficulties and stern.

The Iraqis were offered to chose one of two nationalities, the Ottoman or the Persian while getting any of these two nationalities did not cancel the Iraqi identity. This means that those who have the Iranian nationality should be expelled to Iran and Turkey, which represents the majority of the Iraqi people. It’s well known, especially to Iraqi authorities that all expelled are those who were born, and grown up in Iraq, handed down from father to son. It’s interesting that most expelled haven’t visited Iran before.

Occupying the Iraqi lands by the British army focused on separating the Shiites and Sunnis and put some rules and procedures for the possession of the Iraqi nationality especially for those who were a subject to the Ottomans and the Iranians . It is worth mentioning that the majority of the Sunnis,got the Ottoman nationality while some Shiite preferred the Persian nationality to avoid joining the Ottoman army as mentioned before .

We should also mention here that the geographical area for Faili Kurds lived in was the stage of the conflict between the Ottoman and the Persians which destroyed the stability of the Persians which destroyed the stability of the Kurds and prevented them from belonging to any part . So that we find many of them living in Iraq without having any nationality . But they had to present applied to get the Iraqi nationality certificate which is important to achieve many official works .

We want to remind you that Arab citizens(non Iraqis) (expect the Palestinian) have a right to get the Iraqi citizenship,this modified decree was ordered by Saddam Hussein himself in 1997.

The status of the Faili Kurds during the monarchy regime:

The suffering of the Faili Kurds began when Faisal ( I )became the King of Iraq, by 1924 the 1st law of Iraqi nationality was issued . This law had caused the suffering of our grandfathers, as well as ourselves.

The mentioned law was issued and applied neglecting all considerations . The Faili Kurds were registered as followers of the Iranian state . But we must mention here that there are an article in the law of person status and nationality which was published in the Iraqi events Official paper( al Waqie al-Iraqiyah) saying that any person that was born in Iraq who is eighteen years old and performed the military service(for male only) has the right to get the Iraqi citizenship ( the certificate of the Iraqi nationality ) .

Since that day , the Iraqi regime divided the Iraqis into three divisions :

1- the genuine Iraqis ( the Ottoman followers ) .

2- the second class Iraqis (the Iranian and Indian followers).

3- the third class Iraqis (others). All Iraqis should have the official documents issued in 1924, 1947, 1959, and 1965. This means that those who apply to get the Iraqi nationality must be one of those who have one of the certificates issued in the above mentioned years relatives (parents and brothers).

The Shiites in general and the Faili Kurds in particularity are subjects to very accurate inspection when they apply to get this certificate. It is worth mentioning here that the authorities of the ministry of the Interior considers the title Faili an (undesired) person or a foreigner. While the authorities in treating the people of western province area in Iraq, they have only inspected the name of the family, the tribe and the birthplace to grant the Iraqi nationality. Another important notice is that those who are classified in category no.1, allowed to join the military institutions, intelligence, air forces and other important and sensitive position on condition of being officially accepted by the regime, while those who belong to the category 2 and 3 can not.

Being subjects to the citizens of the world society for classifying the Iraqis into grades and registering are grades in the certificate of the Iraqi nationality, Saddam’s regime turned to give codes to these grades that are only understood by the officials of the ministries of interior and foreign Affairs and the Intelligence authorities.

All Iraqi citizens must have a birth certificate signed by the concerned authorities and also some other certificates such as the nationality certificate of 1947 and 1957, the personal identity card 1965 or the following years, the certificate of Iraqi nationality and the military service (for males only), and the passport. There are also many other important documents like the students’ identity cards and more others.

What is so strange is that the Faili Kurds often have the mentioned documents but this did not prevent Saddam’s regime from violating their rights and expelling them from Iraq.

In 1963 the nationality law No. 43 was issued. The article No. 7 of which says: the Minister of Interior has the right to grant the Iraqi nationality to any person that was born in Iraq by a foreign father on the following conditions:

a) He should be living in Iraq.

b) He should apply to get the Iraqi nationality with in one year of reaching the age of maturity. This law has never been applied in the stated way. On the contrary, the regime deprived the Faili Kurds' rights to get the Iraqi citizenship and this is what exactly happened after one year of the law's issuance.

Since he held power, the dictator Saddam Hussein issued many unfair orders accusing the Faili Kurds of being not genuine Iraqis and descending from foreign origins, such as the decrees numbered 150, 474, and 610 and the unfair one No. 666 issued in May 7, 1980 which de-nationalizes the Faili Kurds. There are so many other orders that follow this unfair line such as the decree numbered 180, issued in March 2,1980 which restricts the Iraqi nationality to only these Faili Kurds who have been living in Iraq since 14 July 1958 in order to define those who have these certificate to expel them. After few weeks the authorities called all the merchants and businessmen to a meeting in Baghdad's Chamber of Commerce and asked them to bring all their official documents .Then the Faili Kurds were gathered with the other Shiites and were pushed towards the Iranian borders .Since then, the first week of April 1980 till now, the regime did their best to exalt the campaign by expelling the Faili Kurds.

O.B.S:

The Egyptian writer Dorria Awni has discussed the problem of deportation in her book (Arab and Kurds :Conflict and Agreement) which was issued by Al-Helal publishing house,1993,in page 89 , ....... The Egyptian writer Saad El-Din Ibrahim also discussed the subject in his book " Religious, doctrines, nationalities and minorities in the Arab world " which was issued by Ibn Khaldoun center, Cairo, Egypt 1994. He discussed the subject of Faili Kurds and the problem of expulsion practiced by the Iraqi regime in March 1970, Dr. Abdel Rahman Qasemlo also refereed to this subject in his book Kurdistan and the Kurds, published in Beirut, Lebanon pp 227.

The Daily suffering of the Faili Kurds:

The tragedy that the Faili Kurds has experienced since the reign of Sadam's regime has begun to hard to be expressed in words. The first signs of violation of the Kurdish rights began as early as the 70 s when the regime arrested hundreds of Faili men and youths because of their support for the Kurdish movement in Iraq. There were subjects to the most severe physical and psychological torment. The regime also banned the activities of the society of the Faili Kurds, and closed their schools and the athletic Faili clubs in Baghdad and confiscated their properties, which coincided with forced campaigns, that resulted in expelling more than 70 thousand Faili Kurds to Iran’s borders .In the spring of 1980 the compaingn was continued and 150 thousands Faili Kurds were expelled, among them 8-10 thousand still in Iraqi prisons, whom are between 18 and 40 years old. The international human organization was called to probe the fate of that miserable, but in vain.

We must mention that the Iraqi authorities did not accuse any of these prisoners and the Iraqi government meanwhile they have denied their existence many times .The regime did not only expel the Faili Kurds, but confiscated their properties and withdrew their documents as well to make it difficult for them to prove their Iraqi nationality. But instead there were some few Faili Kurds who could hide some official documents.

What a miserable fate these people suffers from! . This unfair expulsion of the Faili Kurds pushed them to an unknown fate after being so rich in past days. As for those who live outside Iraq they suffer from alienation and the inability to merge in the unfamiliar culture ever, plus the lack of capitals necessary to start new life. As for those who remain inside Iraq, they live in an invisible status, worse than that of those who got deported. They suffer daily from fear and terror, because they are repeatedly summoned to police stations, to become subjects of investigation, whereas they become subjects to questioning, and punishment if they delay to do that, plus the inhuman dealing they meet in the official departments.

The Faili Kurds and deportation:

The Faili Kurds have been expelled many times since 1936 during the reign of the government of Taha Yassin Al-Hashmy. The campaign was continued in 1964 during the reign of Abdel Salam Aref. During this period the authorities expelled the inhabitants of the cities near the borders to Iran. In this period from 1969 to 1972, the Iraqi people were celebrating the signing of the agreement of March 11, 1970 for concluding peace agreement in Kurdistan and acknowledging autonomy for the Kurdish people, the government of Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr launched a campaign to expel more than 70 thousand Faili Kurds to Iran.

And during the period from 1980 to 1992, when Saddam Hussien held power in Iraq, he continued to expel them in a wide scale without any consideration to international commitments and in contrast to the International Declaration for Human Rights 1948 .The previous laws were canceled. When Saddam Hussien al Takriti ordered his barbarian authorities to launch a severe campaign against 300 thousand Iraqis, most of them were Faili Kurds who loved the Iraqi nationality. The authorities also confiscated their properties and capitals and withdrew their documents. These Faili Kurds were expelled to where they found many other inhuman treatment as many women faced sexual assault and rape by some Iranian opposing sects which Saddam's regime supports. There are so many proves on these violations in addition to the witnesses of the victims themselves.

The Kurds and the obligatory life in Iran:

Reaching Iran, the expelled Kurds were offered very primitive camps to live in, until leaving them under the responsibility of any Iranian citizen that pledges to offer a place to live in, a job and medical care for them. The Kurds in their turn are obliged to accept these conditions and to leave these bad camps.

Then an identity card is issued for every expelled man leaving the camps which is called (KART SABZ) in Persian language which means the green card, on the card there is a sentence that says that it is only for identification and it is not allowed for the Iranian citizen to buy or sell estates or transportation means.

The expelled can not get an official contract of marriage in case he or she gets married. He or she can not get a work permit or any official education and can not be enrolled to the Iranian universities .He or she also has to get a previous permission from the local authority before moving, so that many Faili Kurds prefer to leave Iran for these reasons and to do so, they had to get a temporary travel document issued by the Iranian ministry of Interior in which the person’s name and nationality are written by the Iranian officers used to write the sentence of " departure with no return " and define the period of departure with only 48 or 72 hours .

The Faili Kurds and their life in asylum giver countries:

It is well known that all Arab countries, except Syria, have a negative response towards the Faili Kurds. They never allowed them to live on their lands or even pass to the West Europe countries added to this, the problem of proving the identity which is so difficult as the officers of these countries refuse to grant their nationalities to the Faili Kurds.

The organizations of the Faili Kurds pleaded the concerned authorities in these countries, to find solutions to the problems of residence and nationality, but in vain unfortunately.

Saddam´s regime and the human right violations

Saddam has broken the human right laws many times and still does, and has broken the International Declaration for human rights (1948) paragraphs

(1,2,3,5,7,9,15:I, II, 18,21:I). Our organization asks the International community to defend the human rights and to condemn the power of Saddam´s regime. We ask you to help us live peacefully in Iraq and in other countries.

We need legitimate and conclusive solutions for these concerns.