Remembering: The Fazil Family Joins the Kurdish Exodus of 1991
Jul 27, 2010
Story Highlights
In 1991, Rebin and Rebwar Fazil were twin boys living in Erbil, Iraq. They were 6 years old when the military forces of Saddam Hussein's regime attacked Kurdish cities in an attempt to take control of areas lost in the Kurdish revolt.
In 1991, Rebin and Rebwar Fazil were twin boys living in Erbil, Iraq. They were 6 years old when the military forces of Saddam Hussein's regime attacked Kurdish cities in an attempt to take control of areas lost in the Kurdish revolt. The attacks led to thousands of Kurdish deaths.
Three years earlier, the Kurdish city of Halabja and other towns had been bombed with chemical weapons at the end of the Iran-Iraq War. The regime's military forces inundated the Kurdish region. Residents of the area, who were sick of the continued violence, revolted against the regime. As Saddam Hussein gathered his forces to fight the revolution in the first week of April 1991, families began to leave the Kurdish region.
Rebin and Rebwar's father, Fazil Khalid, had just returned from eight years of military service in the Iran-Iraq War. Fazil had finally returned to his wife and four children and was just beginning to enjoy freedom gained from the Kurdish revolution in March. But the family couldn't live in peace yet.
Rebin's twin brother, Rebwar, was surprised when his parents said they had to leave. "Suddenly from other people, we heard about the early morning attack of the unkind military forces of Saddam's regime on the Kurdish cities. We found as much food as we could and took as much as we could carry for a long trip." Rebwar said. "We were running away from certain death, if we would stay in the city. We didn't have a car or truck so we left with neighbors.
"We began to leave our home as quickly as we could and headed toward the mountains by way of Shaqlawa, a city located to the northeast of Erbil. There is a saying that goes, 'only the mountains are friends of the Kurdish people.' We assumed that we could stop running there, but we couldn't."
As the family reached Shaqlawa, Rebin became very ill. The rainy season was longer than usual. It continued to rain throughout their difficult journey and his mother grew very afraid of losing her son. The Fazils decided to stay in Shaqlawa until Rebin recovered.
As they waited in Shaqlawa, they received news that Saddam Hussein's forces would come to the town soon. Despite the fact that Rebin was still very ill, the family decided to keep moving toward the border.
Rebwar remembers becoming separated from Rebin and his mother. "When we left Shaqlawa, we lost each other and when we reached Haji Omeran, the town on the Iraq-Iran border, the two groups met each other again."
They stayed there, he said, "for a long time without food and drinking water, waiting there living on aid from other countries, until we heard that we could return," he said.
Along the journey, they heard about and saw many tragic events, like a mother leaving her child and the death of other people.
"As we arrived home, we saw many broken doors and all the things in the houses were spread out. It was terrible," Rebwar remembers. "These are dreadful events for all Kurdish people and are a part of history and the lives of every Kurdish youth and next generations. This is what we saw."
Above Photo: Rebin and Rebwar Fazil at age six in Erbil, Iraq. (Photo courtesy Rebin Fazil)
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